FROM   THE  LIBRARY  OF 
REV.   LOUIS    FITZGERALD    BENSON.  D.  D. 

BEQUEATHED   BY  HIM   TO 

THE   LIBRARY  OF 

PRINCETON  THEOLOGICAL  SEMINARY 


Seotlo.         /005, 


The  first  book  published  by  Dr.  Good  was  The  Origin  of 
the  Reformed  Church  in  Germany,  which  appeared  at  Read- 
ing in  1887.  In  it  he  gives  an  interesting  account  of  the  rise 
and  spread  of  the  Reformed  faith  in  Germany.  He  shows 
that  preparations  for  the  Reformed  faith  were  made  by  the 
work  of  Bucer  at  Strassburg,  Lambert  in  Hesse,  John  a  Lasco 
at  Bremen  and  Melanchthon  in  the  Palatinate.  Its  introduc- 
tion was  marked  by  the  adoption  of  the  Heidelberg  Cate- 
chism by  the  Elector  Frederick  III,  of  the  Palatinate,  in  1563. 
After  that  date  the  Reformed  Church  spread  along  the  Rhine 
into  Western  Germany,  and  was  then  introduced  into  Anhalt, 
Lippe,  Hesse  and  Brandenburg.  The  story  of  the  Reformed 
Church  is  brought  down  to  the  Synod  of  Dort,  in  1619.  The 
whole  record  is  told  in  a  simple  form,  without  display  of  much 
learning  or  elaborate  citation  of  authorities,  although  the 
author  had  studied  and  used  his  sources  carefully  through- 
out the  book. 


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IN  THE  SEVENTEENTH  CENTURY. 


THE 


ORIGIN 


OF   THE 


REFORMED  CHURCH 


IN 


GKRMANY. 

REV.  JAMES  I.  GOOD,  D.  D. 


READING,  PA.: 

DANIEL  MILLER,  PUBLISHER. 

1887. 


Entered,  according  to  Act  of  Congress,  in  the  year  1887, 

BY  REV.  JAMES  I.  GOOD,  D.  D., 

In  the  Office  of  the  Librarian  of  Congress,  at  Washington. 


TO  THE  MEMORY 

OF 

MY  SAINTED  FATHER, 

REV.  WILLIAM  A.  GOOD, 

WHO    LOVED   TO 

PREACH  THE  TRUTHS 

OF    THE 

HEIDELBERG  CATECHISM, 

THIS    BOOK 

IS   DEDICATED. 


VI  PREFACE. 

ever,  the  county  of  Hanau  should  have  been  continued 
westward  until  it  touched  Frankford.)  It  is  also  to  be 
remembered  that  the  book  was  written  during  the  busy 
duties  of  a  city  pastorate,  which  prevented  the  writer 
from  making  closer  researches  on  certain  points.  This 
work  is  intended  to  be  a  guide  book  to  any  who  travel 
in  Germany,  special  pains  having  been  taken  to  give 
the  exact  location  of  places  interesting  in  Reformed 
history.  The  author  feels  under  special  obligations  to 
Rev.  Prof.  Chas.  A.  Briggs,  D.  D.,and  Rev.Chas.  Gillett, 
of  the  Union  Seminary,  New  York,  for  aid  in  its  invalu- 
able library ;  also  to  Rev.  Prof.  David  Demarest,  D.  D., 
of  the  New  Brunswick  Seminary  ;  to  Rev.  Prof.  J.  H.  A. 
Bomberger,  D.  D.,  of  Ursinus  College,  College ville.  Pa. ; 
Rev.  Prof.  J.  H.  Good,  D.  D.,  of  Heidelberg  Seminary, 
Tiffin,  Ohio,  and  Rev.  Prof.  J.  H.  Dubbs,  D.  D.,  of 
Lancaster,  Pa.,  for  aid  given  in  the  preparation  of  the 
work.  He  has  also  added  an  appendix,  entitled  the 
'^Reformed  World,^'  giving  the  condition  of  the  Re- 
formed Churches  throughout  the  world  at  the  present 
time.  It  is  to  be  hoped  that  this  book  will  fill  a  gap  in 
our  Reformed  Church  history,  and  will  stimulate  the 
German  Reformed  people  to  greater  love  for  their  Church 
and  greater  pride  in  her  history. 

JAMES  I.  GOOD. 
Philadelphia,  Sept.  1,  1887. 


CONTENTS. 


INTRODUCTORY  SECTION. 

Differences  Between  the  Lutheran  and  Reformed  Churches  in  the  Six- 
teenth Century Page  9 

CHAPTER  I. 

SECTION  I.— Preparation  of  Germany  for  the  Reformed  Church 24 

SEC.  II. — Bucer  and  his  Preparation  for  the  Reformed  Church  at 

Strasburg 28 

SEC.  III. — Hesse  and  its  Preparation  for  the  Reformed  Faith 50 

SEC.  IV. — Lasco  and  his  Preparation  for  the  Reformed  Faith 80 

SEC.  V. — Melancthon  and  his  Preparation  for  the  Reformed  Church..  108 

CHAPTER  II. 

The  Introduction  of  the  Reformed  Faith  into  the  Palatinate 126 

SEC.   I.— The  Preparation  of  the  Palatinate  for  the  Reformed  Church..  1 26 

SEC.  II. — The  Authors  of  the   Heidelberg  Catechism,   Ursinus  and 

Olevianus 150 

SEC.  III. — The  Heidelberg  Catechism  and  its  Composition 170 

SEC.  IV.— The  Defence  of  the  Heidelberg  Catechism  by  Elector  Fred- 
erick III , 193 

SEC.  v.— The  Later  Life  of  Elector  Frederick  IIL,  1566— 1576 216 

CHAPTER  III. 

The  Origin  of  the  Reformed  Church  in  Western  Germany 232 

SEC.  I. — Elector  Lewis  and  his  Persecution  of  the  Reformed  in  the 

Palatinate,  1576—83 232 

SEC.  II.— The  Introduction  of  the  Reformed  Faith  into  the  Wetterau 

District 253 

SEC.  III.— Introduction  of  the  Reformed  Faith  into  Bremen 271 

SEC.  IV. — Introduction  of  the   Reformed   Faith    Along   the    Lower 

Rhine 278 

SEC,   v.— Re-introduction  of  the   Reformed   Faith   into  the   Palati- 
nate by  Prince  Casimir,  1583—92 307 

SEC.  VI.— Elector  Frederick  IV.  of  the  Palatinate  and  his  Reign, 

1592—1610 315 

SEC.  VII.— Introduction  of  the  Reformed  Faith  into  Zweibruecken...  323 


VIII  CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER  IV. 

Introduction  of  the  Reformed  Faith  into  Central  and  Eastern  Ger- 
many   328 

SEC.  I. — Rise  and  Fall  of  Crypto-Calvinism  in  Saxony 328 

SEC.  II. — Introduction  of  the  Reformed  Faith  into  Anhalt  and  Lippe..  345 

SEC.  III.— Introduction  of  the  Reformed  Faith  into  Hesse 352 

SEC.  IV. — Introduction  of  the  Reformed  Faith  into  Brandenberg 366 

SEC.  v.— Introduction  of  the  Reformed  Faith  into  Liegnitz,   Schon- 

aicher,  &c 383 

CHAPTER  V. 

The  Close  of  the  Introduction  of  the  Reformed  Church  into  Germany..  387 

SEC.   I. -Elector  Frederick  V.  of  the  Palatinate.     1610—20 387 

SEC.  II.— TheSjnod  of  Dort ...; 393 

SEC.  III.— Summary 426 

SEC.  IV. -Conclusion 437 


APPENDIX. 

The  Reformed  World Page  459 

Index  of  Dates 489 

Index  of  Names  and  Places 491 


ILLUSTRATIONS. 

Map  of  Germany  in  the  Seventeenth  Century. 

Heidelberg  Castle  in  1620 Frontispiece. 

Marburg  in  1620 Page  72 

Heidelberg  in  the  Sixteenth  Century 128 

Zacharias  Ursinus 150 

Caspar  Olevianus 156 

Elector  Frederick  III.  of  the  Palatinate 192 

The  Episcopal  Palace  at  Augsburg 208 

Neustadt 232 

Casimirium  at  Neustadt 240 

Herborn 264 

Cassel  in  1620 352 

Berlin  in   1680 368 

The  Synod  of  Dort 408 


INTRODUCTORY  SECTION. 

Differences  Between  the  Lutheran  and  Reformed  Churches 
in  the  Sixteenth  Century. 

The  Reformed  Church  of  Germany  has  a  history. 
If  so,  it  ought  to  be  told  to  her  English  children  in  their 
own  tongue.  The  history  of  the  German  Reformed 
Church  is  a  history  of  persecutions  and  triumphs.  She 
was  a  faithful  witness  to  the  truth  in  days  of  darkness 
and  danger.  She  was  not  the  least  among  the  Reformed 
Churches  of  the  sixteenth  century,  but  was  a  leader  in 
the  sacramental  host  of  God's  elect. 

The  most  interesting  part  of  Reformed  Church  his- 
tory is  its  beginning.  To  see  the  light  first  glimmering 
through  the  darkness,  to  see  the  struggles  to  find  the  truth, 
to  watch  her  progress  through  persecution,  and  her  on- 
ward march  to  victory,  is  the  most  fascinating  page  of 
her  church -life.  We  propose  to  take  up  the  story  of 
her  origin  in  Germany,  and  to  tell  that  story  simply,  but 
faithfully. 

The  Reformed  Church  of  Germany  was  peculiar  in 

her   origin.      The    word    Reformed    originally    meant 

*' reformed"    from    the    Catholic    Church  — from     her 

abuses  and  sins.     But  she  was  not  a  Church,   reformed 

2 


10  THE    REFORMED   CHURCH   OF   GERMANY. 

from  Catholicism,  but  reformed  from  Lutheranism. 
In  other  lands,  as  in  Switzerland,  France,  Holland, 
Scotland  and  England,  the  Reformed  Church  was 
a  reforming  of  the  Papal  Church.  But  in  Germany  Lu- 
theranism had  already  conquered  the  land  to  Protest- 
antism many  years  before  the  Reformed  Church  entered 
that  land.  With  only  one  exception  (the  Church  at  Em- 
den  in  North  Germany ;  and  perhaps  the  Reformed 
Church  of  Strasburg,  where  the  people  came  from 
Catholicism  to  the  Reformed  Church),  the  whole  Re- 
formed Church  of  Germany  came  out  of  the  Lutheran 
Church.  It  was  a  reformation  of  the  Lutheran  Church, 
as  the  Lutheran  Church  was  a  reformation  of  the  Rom- 
ish Church.  The  Reformed  Church,  then,  was  a  purer 
Lutheranism.  It  was  the  entrance  of  a  second  Protest- 
antism into  Germany.  The  first  protest  was  at  Spire, 
in  1529,  when  the  Lutheran  princes  protested  against 
the  Catholic  decrees  of  that  Diet.  And  because  they 
protested  there,  all  Evangelicals  are  called  Protestants. 
The  Reformed  Church  was  a  second  protest  uttered  as 
decidedly  as  the  first.  Only  it  was  directed  against  the 
relics  of  papacy  that  were  still  common  in  the  Lutheran 
Church  of  that  day.  The  Reformed  Church  finally 
came  into  official  existence  at  the  Diet  of  Augsburg  in 
1566,  when  Elector  Frederick  III.  made  his  eloquent 
defence  of  his  Heidelberg  Catechism — the  second  pro- 
test.    However  friendly  the  Lutheran  and   Reformed 


A    REFORM    IN   THE   LUTHERAN   CHURCH.  11 

Churches  may  be  to-day  (why  should  they  not  be  ?) ;  yet 
the  careful  student  of  history  cannot  fail  to  be  impressed 
with  the  fact,  that  the  Lutheran  Church  of  the  sixteenth 
century  was  more  bigoted,  more  intolerant,  more  sacra- 
mentarian  and  less  liberal  than  the  Lutheran  Church  of 
the  nineteenth  century.  And  so,  the  founding  of  the  Re- 
formed Church  in  Germany  was  a  decided,  yes  in  some 
places  an  indignant,  protest  against  the  sacramentarian- 
ism  and  bigotry  of  the  Lutheran  Church.  Queen  Eliz- 
abeth of  England,  in  one  of  her  letters  to  the  different 
courts  of  Germany  in  1577,  speaking  of  the  Reformed 
Churches,  calls  them  the  "ecclesiae  reformatiores" — 
*  more  reformed'  ;  implying  that  the  Lutherans  were  re- 
formed, but  the  Reformed  were  more  so.  The  Re- 
formed Church,  then,  was  a  reformation  of  the  Lutheran 
Church  of  that  age. 

This  history  is  not  intended  to  be  a  history  of  doc- 
trines, but  rather  a  statement  of  facts.  Doctrines  are 
only  referred  to,  as  they  are  interwoven  with  the  places 
or  the  events  of  history.  To  write  a  history  of  the  doc- 
trines, as  well  as  of  the  events,  would  far  exceed  the 
limits  of  this  volume.  Certain  doctrines,  or  differences 
in  doctrines  will  have  to  be  taken  for  granted.  It  will 
be  necessary,  therefore,  at  the  very  beginning  to  state 
the  differences  between  the  Lutherans  and  the  Reformed 
of  that  age,  so  that  we  need  not  waste  any  time  hereafter 
by  continually  defining  or  describing  doctrine. 


12  THE    REFORMED    CHURCH    OF   GERMANY. 

1. — Names  of  the  two  Churches, 
The  name  "Lutheran"  was  not  originally  applied  to 
the  Lutheran  Church  alone.  It  was  a  name  given  by  the 
Catholics  to  all  Evangelicals,  Reformed  as  well  as  Lu- 
therans. The  Catholics  made  it  a  term  of  reproach  ;  as 
if  the  Lutherans  were  the  followers  of  a  man^  while  they 
were  the  followers  of  God.  So,  too,  the  name  "Re- 
formed" was  at  first  a  general  term  for  all  Evangelicals. 
It  included  Lutherans  as  well  as  Reformed.  But  in 
course  of  time  these  two  names  came  to  be  applied  to 
two  great  tendencies  or  divisions  in  the  Church.  The 
name  "Lutheran,"  as  the  official  title  of  the  Lutheran 
Church,  did  not  appear  until  the  days  of  the  Formula 
of  Concord  in  1577,  more  than  half  a  century  after  Lu- 
ther began  his  reformation.  Luther  had  died  and  it 
then  became  the  fashion  to  glorify  his  words  and  works. 
Andrea  and  Hunnius  then  looked  on  him  as  a  special 
messenger  of  God  to  reveal  the  doctrines  of  Christianity. 
Luther  at  first  had  complained  of  this  use  of  his  name 
by  his  followers.  But  his  adherents  clung  to  the  name 
and  prided  themselves  on  it,  forgetting  Paul's  warning 
against  the  naming  of  sects  after  individuals  as  given  in 
1  Cor.  1 :  12,  13,  "  Now  this  I  say  that  every  one  of  you 
saith  I  am  of  Paul,  and  I  of  Apollos,  and  I  of  Cephas, 
and  I  of  Christ.  Is  Christ  divided  ?  Was  Paul  cruci- 
fied for  you  ?  or  were  ye  baptized  in  the  name  of  Paul  ?" 
The  Reformed  Church   was   not  so  limited   as  the 


THE  NAMES  LUTHERAN  AND  REFORMED.    13 

Lutheran,  in  the  number  of  her  names.  She  had  several 
names.  Her  first  distinctive  name  was  Sacramentarian 
or  Zwinglian.  This  was  a  name  of  reproach  given  by 
the  Lutherans,  because  the  Reformed  seemed  to  them  to 
make  so  much  of  the  sacrament  and  so  little  of  Christ 
in  the  Lord's  supper;  (the  Reformed  did  not  believe  in 
the  external  presence  of  Christ  at  the  supper.)  The 
next  name  given  to  the  Reformed  was  the  name  '*  Re- 
formed.'' This  name  was  at  first  given  to  all  Evan- 
gelicals who  aimed  to  reform  the  abuses  of  the  Catholic 
Church.  But  it  was  first  used  as  the  official  title  of  the 
Reformed  branch  of  Churches  in  the  province  of  Nassau 
in  Germany  in  1578,  then  in  Anhalt,  the  Palatinate  and 
Bremen.  It  was  used  by  them,  either  to  emphatically 
define  their  position  against  high  Lutheranism,  or  with 
the  intention  of  a  more  thorough  reformation  than  the 
Lutheran  Church  had  made.  But  still  the  old  use  of 
the  name  Reformed  continued  even  as  late  as  1581, 
when  in  the  "  Harmony  of  the  Orthodox  and  Reformed 
Confessions''  it  is  still  used  in  its  broad  sense  ;  for  that 
Harmony  of  Reformed  creeds  includes  in  it  the  Augs- 
burg and  Wurtemberg  Confessions,  which  were  Lu- 
theran. 

The  third  name  given  to  the  Reformed  was  the 
name  "  Calvinist."  Westphal  and  Hesshuss,  the  Lu- 
theran zealots,  invented  this  name,  so  as  to  cast  reproach 
on  the  Reformed.  They  wanted  to  suggest,  (as  Calvin  was 


14  THE    REFORMED   CHURCH    OF   GERMANY. 

a  Frenchman,  not  a  German,)  that  the  Reformed  faith 
was  a  foreign,  strange  faith  to  the  Germans,  and  had  no 
right  to  enter  Germany.  But  the  Reformed  of  Ger- 
many seemed  to  have  preferred  the  name  Reformed  to 
Calvinist.  They  did  not  care  to  name  themselves  after 
any  particular  person.  They  did  not  want  to  have  the 
foreign  origin  of  their  faith  continually  hinted  at  by  the 
name  Calvinist.  There  was,  however,  this  difference  in 
the  use  of  this  name ;  that  while  in  Eastern  Germany, 
where  they  were  among  hostile  Lutherans,  the  Reformed 
seldom  used  the  name  Calvinist,  in  Western  Germany 
the  name  is  much  oftener  used,  and  pride  was  taken  in 
its  use.  Such  names  as  are  now  sometimes  given  to  the 
Reformed,  as  Reformed-Lutherans  or  Lutheran-Re- 
formed, only  reveal  the  ignorance  of  those  who  use 
them.  There  never  was  a  Reformed-Lutheran  or  a 
Lutheran-Reformed  Church  officially  so  designated. 
The  Reformed  Church  was  always  distinct  from  the 
Lutheran  Church,  and  it  emphasized  its  distinctness  and 
separation.  It  was  as  much  distinct  from  the  Lutheran 
as  are  the  Presbyterian  or  Episcopal  Churches  of  to-day. 

2. — Doctrines. 

Let  us  now  notice  the  difference  in  doctrine  between 
the  Reformed  and  Lutherans  of  Germany  as  they  ap- 
peared in  the  sixteenth  century.  There  were  three  main 
differences  in   doctrine,  mode  of  worship  and  govern- 


DIFFERENCE    IN    DOCTRINE.  16 

merit.     Out  of  these  three,  two  other  differences  grew  a 
little  later. 

The  first  and  most  important  distinction  between 
them  was  in  the  doctrine  of  the  sacraments.  The  Lu- 
therans were  higher  on  the  sacraments  than  the  Re- 
formed— higher  both  on  baptism,  as  well  as  the  Lord^s 
supper.*  The  Lutherans  generally  held  that  unbap- 
tized  infants  were  unregenerated ;  and  there  was,  to  say 
the  least,  the  greatest  doubt  whether  they  were  saved. 
The  Reformed  generally  held  to  infant  salvation.  But 
the  most  important  difference  was  in  the  Lord's  supper. 
This  feast  of  peace  has,  alas,  been  made  the  bone  of  con- 
tention. The  Lutherans  held  to  Christ's  presence  in 
the  elements,  while  the  Reformed  held  to  His  presence 
at  the  supper,  although  not  necessarily  in  the  elements. 
The  Lutherans  held  to  a  bodily  presence,  the  Re- 
formed to  a  spiritual  presence.  The  Lutherans  believed 
that  Christ's  body  and  blood  were  intimately  united 
with  the  bread  and  wine — "in,  with  and  under"  the 
bread  and  wine.  The  Reformed  were  ready  to  grant 
that  Christ  was  received  Svith'  the  elements,  but  not 
*in'  and  *  under'  them.  As  the  Lutherans  believed  that 
Christ's  body  and  blood  were  mysteriously   united  with 

*The  Lutherans  held  that  baptism  was  a  means  of  regenera- 
tion, concurrent  with  the  sacramental  act  and  hence  necessary 
to  salvation.  The  Reformed  held  that  baptism  was  a  sign  and 
seal  of  regeneration ;  concurrent,  or  preceding,  or  succeeding 
regeneration  accordijig  to  God's  free  pleasure.— Schaff. 


16     THE  REFORMED  CHURCH  OF  GERMANY. 

the  elements,  they  also  believed  He  was  received  through 
the  mouth  with  the  bread  and  wine.  This  doctrine  was 
called  oral  raauducation.  The  Reformed  denied  this 
doctrine  as  savoring  of  cannibalism  ;  and  held  that  Christ 
was  not  received  through  the  mouth,  but  that  He  was 
received  spiritually  hy  faith.  And  also,  since  the  Lu- 
therans believed  in  this  union  of  Christ's  body  and 
blood  with  the  elements,  they  believed  that  all  who  re- 
ceived the  communion,  whether  worthy  or  unworthy,  re- 
ceived Christ  and  were  blessed.  The  Reformed  declared 
that  only  those  who  received  it  through  faith  received 
Christ ;  all  others  receiving  it  only  to  their  condem- 
nation. 

The  second  difference  between  them  was  in  their  cul- 
tus  or  manner  of  worship.  The  Reformed  Church  serv- 
ices were  simpler  than  the  Lutheran.  The  Lutheran 
was  the  high  Church,  the  Reformed  the  low  Church  of 
Germany.  The  Lutherans  emphasized  the  ceremonial, 
the  Reformed  the  spiritual.  In  baptism  the  Lutherans 
retained  in  most  places  the  Catholic  rite  of  exorcism,  or 
blowing  away  of  the  devil  at  baptism.  And  when  the 
Formula  of  Concord  was  adopted,  exorcism  became  the 
shibboleth  of  the  high  Lutherans.  The  Reformed  put 
baptismal  fonts  out  of  the  churches  and  went  so 
far  in  their  simplicity  as  often  to  use  nothing  but  a 
wooden  bowl.  At  the  Lord's  Supper  the  Lutherans  re- 
tained the  wafers  of  the  Catholic  Church,  while  the  Re- 


DIFFERENCE   IN    CUSTOM.  17 

formed  used  bread,  after  the  Scriptural  mode.  The  Re- 
formed used  common  plates  and  cups  at  the  communion, 
so  as  to  emphasize  their  simplicity  ;  sometimes  even  go- 
ing so  far  as  to  use  only  wooden  plates  and  cups  at  the 
sacrament.  Altars  they  would  not  allow  in  their 
churches.  Almost  the  first  act  in  introducing  a  Re- 
formed church,  was  to  put  away  the  altars  of  the  Lu- 
therans. Ursinus'  opposition  to  altars  is  shown  in  his 
letter  to  Crato  about  Morenberg,  who  had  dared  to  put 
away  an  altar  from  his  church.  "God  knows,"  says 
Ursinus,  "I  hope  that  no  damage  shall  come  to  him  for 
the  effort,  yes,  much  more  that  all  altars  in  the  world 
might  be  extirpated,  since  we  have  now  a  single  altar, 
our  Intercessor  in  Heaven,  who,  as  He  is  our  Priest,  is 
also  our  altar.*  As  a  result  of  their  lower  views  on 
the  sacraments,  the  Reformed  Church  service  was  much 
freer,  less  ritualistic  and  liturgical  than  the  Lutheran. 
The  Reformed  did  not  use  the  Pericopes,  or  Scripture 
lessons  for  each  Sabbath,  in  their  churches.  "  Zwingli  de- 
parted from  the  time-honored  use  of  the  Scripture  les- 
sons, and  connectedly  explained  whole  books  of  the 
Bible,  while  on  this  as  on  other  points  Luther  adhered 
to  the  ancient  custom. "f 

The  Reformed  Church  of  Germany  followed  Zwing- 
li^s  and  Calvin^s  example.     The    Lutheran  church   was 

*Crato,  of  Kratftheim,  page  2')6. 
tHageiibach  XL,  13. 


18  THE    REFORMED    CHURCH    OF   GERMANY. 

the  church  of  the  pericopes,  the  Reformed  of  the  whole 
Bible.  Henry*  says,  "  In  the  Lutheran  church,  the 
pericopes  have  been  retained,  they  have  vanished  from 
the  Reformed  church,  and  with  them  all  marks  of  the 
ecclesiastical  year."  The  Reformed  ministers  seem  to 
have  been  careless  about  any  special  dress  for  the  pul- 
pit. "  Farel  once  preached  at  Rive,  wearing  no  robes 
but  preaching  in  ordinary  citizen's  dress.  This  was  the 
general  custom  of  the  reformers  of  the  Reformed 
Church. "t  The  Reformed  Church  never  believed  in 
the  special  priesthood  of  the  ministry,  she  believed  in  the 
priesthood  of  all  believers. 

The  Reformed  churches  closed  organs,  stopped 
the  ringing  of  church  bells,  and,  in  their  intense  opposi- 
tion to  papal  superstitions,  refused  funeral  services  at 
the  grave,  lest  they  might  seem  to  be  prayers  for  the 
dead.  Thus  it  is  easy  to  see  that  the  Reformed  Church 
service  was  simpler  than  the  Lutheran  and  more  Script- 
ural, also.  As  D'Aubigne  has  well  observed  :  Luther 
aimed  to  put  away  from  the  churches  only  what  was 
contrary  to  the  word  of  God  ;  Zwingli  aimed  to  have 
nothing  in  them  that  was  not  authorized  by  the  word 
of  God. 

*Life  of  Calvin  I.,  418. 
tHagenbach  II.,  203. 


DIFFERENCE    IN    CUSTOM.  19 

There  were  also  several  minor  differences,  which 
reveal  the  papal  influence  still  lingering  in  the  Lutheran 
Church  of  that,  day,  and  which  also  reveal  the  Scriptural 
influence  on  the  Reformed.  The  Lutherans,  in  the 
Lord's  Prayer,  retained  the  form  of  the  Catholic  ^  Pater 
Noster,'  saying  *  Vater  Unser,'  *  father  our/  The  Re- 
formed repeated  it  as  it  is  in  the  Bible,  *  Unser  Vater,' 
*  our  father.'*  They  also  differed  in  another  clause  of  the 
Lord's  Prayer.  The  Lutherans  translated  the  clause 
•^  deliver  us  from  evil,"  following  Augustine  and  the 
Latin  in  doing  so.  This  is  like  the  English  version  of 
the  Lord's  Prayer.  The  Reformed,  following  the  Greek, 
translated  it  *  deliver  us  from  the  evil  one,' — the  devil. 
In  the  ten  commandments,  the  Lutherans  also  retained 
the  Catholic  division,  while  the  Reformed  gave  the 
Scriptural  division.  The  Lutherans  united  the  first 
two  commandments  into  one ;  and  then,  to  make  their 
number  ten,  divided  the  last  commandment  on  coveting 
into  two  commandments.  But  this  division  of  the  last 
commandment  is  contrary  to  Paul's  words  against  covet- 
ousness,  where  he  alludes  to  it  as  one  command. 
This  union  of  the  first  and  second  commandment  served 
to  make  the  command  against  images  less  conspicuous. 
The  result  was,  that  images  were  left  in  the  Lutheran 
churches,  while  they  were   put   out   of  the   Reformed. 

*Dr.  Schaff  observes,  that  this  is  considered  by  some 
farmers  in  Eastern  Pennsylvania  as  the  only  ditference  between 
the  Lutherans  and  the  Reformed. 


20  THE    REFORMED   CHURCH    OF   GERMANY. 

The  Catholics  had  designedly  made  this  division  of  the 
ten  commandments,  so  as  to  allow  the  use  of  images  in 
their  churches.  The  Lutherans  did  not  retain  it  for  that 
reason,  but  merely  as  a  relic  of  Romanism.  But  it  had 
an  unfortunate  influence  on  the  Lutheran  Church,  as  it 
made  her  careless  in  allowing  pictures  or  other  papal  relics 
to  remain  in  their  churches.  The  Lutherans  allowed 
pictures,  statues,  crucifixes,  &c.,  in  the  church.  The 
Reformed  cleansed  their  churches  of  all  pictures,  cruci- 
fixes, even  crosses.  These  differences  may  seem  small 
ones  to  us  at  this  distant  day.  But  the  laity  cling  to 
customs  rather  than  to  doctrines.  The  introduction  of 
bread  instead  of  wafers  at  the  Lord's  supper,  and  the 
putting  away  of  pictures  by  the  Reformed,  led  to  great 
bitterness,  and  sometimes  even  to  riots,  as  at  Marburg 
and  Berlin. 

A  third  difference  between  the  Lutheran  and  the 
Reformed  Churches  lay  in  their  church  government. 
Luther  did  not  give  so  much  attention  to  organization 
as  did  the  reformers  of  the  Reformed  Church.  The 
Reformed  had  a  splendid  set  of  organizers  in  Calvin, 
Lasco,  Lambert  and  Olevianus.  The  Lutheran  Church 
was  aristocratic — the  government  of  princes,  the  Re- 
formed Church  democratic — the  government  of  the 
ministry  and  people.  The  Lutheran  Churches  were 
generally  governed  by  superintendents,  who  were  ap- 
pointed by  the  princes  of  the    land.      The   Reformed 


DIFFERENCE    IN    GOVERNMENT.  21 

Churches  were  governed  by  the  ministry  and  elders, 
chosen  by  the  people.  And  the  Reformed  organization 
was  much  more  complete.  It  bad  a  regular  gradation 
of  church-courts.  First  came  the  presbytery  in  the 
congregation,  consisting  of  the  pastor  and  elders  of  the 
Church.  Above  it,  in  regular  order,  were  the  church-" 
courts  of  Classis,  Synod  and  General  Synod.  In  some 
of  the  states  of  Germany,  this  pure  presbyterian  govern- 
ment was,  to  some  extent,  modified  by  a  compromise 
between  the  Lutheran  and  Reformed  customs,  in  the 
appointment  of  a  consistory.  The  consistory  was  like 
the  Lutheran  form  of  government,  as  its  members  were 
appointed  by  the  prince  But  it  was  like  the  Reformed, 
as  the  prince  left  the  entire  control  of  the  Church  to  the 
consistory,  and  separated  its  jurisdiction  from  the 
administration  of  civil  law.  These  were  the  three  main 
differences  between  the  Lutheran  and  the  Reformed 
Churches,  in  the  early  days  of  the  reformation.  But 
gradually,  as  time  passed  on,  two  other  differences  began 
to  reveal  themselves,  until  they  became  distinctive 
doctrines  of  each  Church. 

The  first  of  them  was  the  doctrine  of  Predestination. 
At  first  all  the  reformers  were  predestinarians.  The 
Romanists  had  so  emphasized  man's  good  works  as  nec- 
essary to  salvation,  that  the  reformers  went  to  the  other 
extreme,  and  emphasized  God's  grace  and  sovereignty  as 
the  only   source   of  salvation.      Melanchthon    in     the 


22  THE    REFORMED   CHURCH   OF   GERMANY. 

Lutheran  Church,  finally  retired  from  the  high  predes- 
tinarian  position,  and  carried  the  Lutheran  Church  with 
him.  While  on  the  other  hand,  Calvin  progressed  in 
it,  until  he  formulated  the  doctrine  for  the  Reformed 
Church.  The  doctrinal  dissensions  of  the  first  half 
century,  at  the  beginning  of  the  reformation,  were  about 
the  Lord's  supper ;  for  the  next  half  century,  they  were 
mainly  about  predestination.  It  is,  however,  to  be  re- 
membered, that  the  Reformed  Church  of  Germany, 
while  accepting  Calvinism,  never  officially  declared  for 
the  doctrine  of  reprobation  nor  for  a  limited  atonement. 
It  is  true,  these  views  were  largely  held  by  her  ministers 
at  that  time,  but  they  were  not  expressed  by  her  symbols. 
Her  creed,  the  Heidelberg  Catechism,  adopts  election  and 
universal  atonement. 

Another  diiference  between  the  two  Churches  be- 
came apparent  in  course  of  time — the  doctrine  of 
ubiquity.  Ubiquity  was  the  logical  outcome  of  Luther- 
anism,  as  predestination  was  of  Calvinism.  The  doc- 
trine of  ubiquity  is,  that  the  human  body  of  Christ  is 
everywhere  present.  This  was  logically  necessary,  so  as 
to  explain  the  Lutheran  doctrine  of  the  Lord's  supper. 
As  the  Lutherans  held  that  Christ's  body  was  present 
whenever  the  Lord's  supper  was  celebrated  ;  and  as  the 
Lord's  supper  was  celebrated  in  many  places  at  the  same 
time,  it  was  logically  necessary  that  Christ's  body  should 
be  present  in  many  places  at  one  time.      So   they   held 


INDIGENOUS   TO   GERMANY.  23 

that  Christ^s  humanity  was  omnipresent  like  his  divinity. 
But  the  Reformed  rebelled  at  this  monstrous  doctrine  of 
ubiquity.  Indeed  it  was  the  publication  of  this  doctrine 
of  ubiquity,  in  the  Formula  of  Concord,  that  drove 
many  of  the  princes  of  Germany  over  to  the  Reformed 
faith.  By  thus  becoming  Reformed,  these  German 
Churches  protested  against  any  intermingling  of  the  two 
Datures  of  Christ.  Anything  that  confuses  the  two 
natures  of  Christ,  or  breaks  down  the  distinction  be- 
tween them,  or  savors  of  Eutychianism,  is  not  Reformed. 
The  very  existence  of  the  Reformed  Church  in  Germany 
is  an  evidence  of  her  opposition  to,  and  hatred  of,  this 
doctrine. 


CHAPTER  I.— SECTION  I. 

Preparation  of  Germany  for  the  Beformed  Church. 

The  Reformed  Church  of  Germany  is  partly  iu- 
digenous,  and  partly  foreign,  in  its  origin.  On  the  one 
hand,  she  was  the  outgrowth  of  the  spirit  and  genius  of 
the  German  people.  The  Germans  were  a  liberty-loving 
race.  They  did  not  bow  themselves  meekly,  either  to 
the  Roman  empire  or  to  the  Roman  Church.  So  when 
the  spirit  of  reformation  appeared  in  the  sixteenth 
century,  the  Germans  were  ripe  for  casting  off  the  yoke 
of  Romanism.  Now  this  intense  love  for  freedom,  and 
this  self-reliance  on  the  part  of  the  Germans,  led  many 
of  them  to  prefer  the  Reformed  Church  to  the  Lutheran. 
For  the  Reformed  Church  was  the  Church  of  freedom. 
Her  government  allows  freedom  of  action  and  fosters 
self-government  through  her  elders  and  synods.  And 
therefore  many  of  these  liberty-loving  Germans  drifted 
over  to  the  Reformed  faith. 

Again,  the  Germans  were  a  simple-hearted  folk. 
There  has  always  been  a  peculiar  simplicity  about  Ger- 
man piety.  This  love  of  simplicity  naturally  led  them 
toward  the  Reformed  Church,  whose  religious  faith  and 
manner  of  worship  was  more  simple  than  the  Lutheran. 


PREPARATION    FOR    REFORMED   CHURCH.  25 

For  these  reasons  the  Reformed  faith  is  indigenous  to 
German  soil — an  outgrowth  of  German  character  and 
life.  Strasbnrg,  Emden,  Palatinate,  Bremen,  Hesse, 
grew  into  the  Reformed  Church  because  of  its  sym- 
plicity.  The  Augsburg  Interim  of  1548  had  opened 
the  eyes  of  German  Protestants  to  the  dangers  still  lurk- 
ing in  many  of  their  forms  of  worship,  which  w^ere 
relics  of  papacy,  but  retained  by  the  Lutheran  Church, 
And  this  made  them  the  more  ready  for  the  simpler 
ritual  of  the  Reformed  Church. 

But  in  other  respects,  the  German  Reformed  faith 
was  foreign  in  its  origin.  It  came  to  Germany  from  the 
outside.  The  birth  place  of  the  Reformed  faith  was 
Switzerland :  and  it  came  into  Germany  from  Switzer- 
land, France,  and  Holland.  Those  who  suggested,  and 
who  also  organized  the  Reformed  Church  to  the  Ger- 
mans, were  mainly  foreigners,  as  Lasco  of  Poland, 
Lambert  of  France,  and  others. 

The  relation  between  these  two  causes  of  the  Re- 
formed faith,  the  one  external,  the  other  internal,  may 
be  stated  thus :  that  while  the  German  people  were 
naturally  inclined  toward  the  freedom  and  simplicity  of 
the  Reformed  Church,  the  Reformed  faith  came  to 
them  at  a  peculiar  juncture  of  affairs — at  a  crisis,  when 
the  high  Lutherans  drove  the  Melancthonians  out  of 
their  ranks.  Then,  when  the  princes  were  tired  of  the 
madness  of  theologians,  and  the  people  weary  of  hearing 
3 


26  THE    REFORMED    CHURCH    OF    GERMANY. 

polemics  instead  of  the  gospel,  in  the  pulpit,  then,  just 
then,  the  Reformed  faith  came  in  to  gather  up  the  dis- 
contented German  christians  into  its  bosom  and  give 
them  rest. 

There  were  four  different  movements  that  pre- 
pared the  way  for  the  introduction  of  the  Reformed 
faith.  The  Reformed  Church  was  officially  recognized 
by  the  German  government  for  the  first  time  at  the  Diet 
of  Augsburg,  in  1566,  when  Elector  Frederick  III.  of 
the  Palatinate  took  his  stand  as  a  member  of  the  Re- 
formed Church.  The  conversion  of  this,  the  leading 
Elector  of  Germany,  arrested  the  attention  of  all  Ger- 
many, and  gave  prominence  and  permanence  to  the  Re- 
formed faith.  The  Palatinate,  with  Heidelberg  as  its 
capital,  became  the  centre  of  Reformed  influence  all 
over  the  land.  But  before  the  Palatinate  became  Re- 
formed, there  were  four  distinct  movements,  which  pre- 
pared the  way. 

The  first  city  in  Germany  to  feel  the  influence  of 
Reformed  doctrines  was  Strasburg,  under  Bucer  and 
Capito.  Strasburg  was  finally  lost  to  the  Reformed 
faith,  as  it  went  over  to  Lutheranism.  But  the  influence 
of  Bucer  the  reformer,  and  John  Sturm  the  teacher,  left 
a  deep  impression  on  Germany. 

The  next  land  to  tend  toward  the  Reformed  faith 
was  Hesse.  Landgrave  Phillip  of  Hesse,  by  his  friend- 
ship with  Zwiugli  and  Bucer,    by    the  introduction    of 


PREPARATION    FOR    REFORMED    CHURCH.  27 

synods  into  his  land,  sowed  the  seed,  which,  however, 
did  not  harvest  until  nearly  a  century  later,  when  Land- 
grave Maurice  finally  went  over  to  the  Refornaed 
Church.  But  Hesse,  with  its  Marburg  Conference  of 
1529,  made  a  deep  impression  on  Germany,  in  favor  of 
the  Reformed  Church. 

The  third  place,  where  the  Reformed  Church  gained 
a  foothold,  was  at  Emden  in  North  Germany.  This 
was  the  first  purely  Reformed  Church  in  Germany, 
the  Reformed  doctrines  being  introduced  as  early  as 
1526,  by  Aportanus.  It  was  the  only  German  Church 
that  came  directly  from  Romanism  into  the  Reformed 
faith.  The  influence  of  the  Church  at  Emden  was 
made  greater  by  the  coming  of  John  A.  Lasco,  the 
Polish  reformer.  Emden  became  a  refuge  for  the  per- 
secuted Reformed  of  all  lands,  and  her  foreign  Reformed 
Churches  opened  the  eyes  of  the  Germans  to  the  reality 
and  beauty  of  the  Reformed  faith. 

The  last  cause  was  not  a  local  one,  but  a  mental  one 
— a  tendency  of  thought,  in  many  parts  of  Germany. 
It  was  Melancthonianism.  The  adherents  of  Melanc- 
thon^s  liberal  views  prepared  the  way  for  our  faith. 
Melancthon  himself  never  was  Reformed  ;  but  his  in- 
fluence finally  became  a  tendency  in  that  direction. 

We  will  take  up  these  four  difl'erent  causes  for  the 
Reformed  Church  in  their  order. 


CHAPTER  I.— SECTION  II. 

Bncer  and  his  Preparation  for  the  Reformed  Church  at 
Strasburg. 

Strasburg  was  one  of  the  most  flourishing  and  liberal 
of  the  free  cities  of  Germany.  Being  a  free  city,  the 
gospel  soon  found  a  free  and  hearty  reception  among  its 
citizens.  From  the  flat  plain,  in  which  it  lies,  its  tall 
cathedral  spire  can  be  seen  for  many  miles  around. 
Like  its  church  spire,  Strasburg  became  a  finger  point- 
ing heavenward,  exerting  a  wide  influence  on  western  and 
southern  Germany.  Matthew  Zell  introduced  the  evan- 
gelical doctrines  into  Strasburg.  It  is  a  remarkable  fact 
that  the  cathedral,  now  so  given  to  Romish  rites,  was  the 
birth  place  of  the  gospel  for  that  city.  Luther's  brave 
conduct  at  the  Diet  of  Worms,  not  far  away,  made  a 
deep  impression  on  all  western  Germany  ;  and  Luther's 
writings,  scattered  abroad,  were  read  in  Strasburg.  Zell 
in  1521  began  preaching  the  evangelical  faith,  by  ex- 
pounding the  epistle  to  the  Romans.  He  first  preached 
them  in  the  chapel  of  St  Lawrence,  one  of  the  side 
chapels  of  the  cathedral.  But  as  the  chapel  became  too 
small,  he  began  to  preach  in  the  great  auditorium  of  the 
cathedral.     And,  as  the  Romish  bishop  locked  the  great 


ZELL    AND    HIS    HELPEKS.  29 

pulpit  of  the  cathedral  against  the  preaching  of  such 
heresy,  the  carpenters  from  the  neighboring  Kurben- 
strasse  made  a  portable  wooden  pulpit,  that  it  might  be 
brought  into  the  cathedral,  when  there  .  was  preaching. 
From  it  he  preached,  and  after  each  service  was  over, 
it  was  carried  out  again.  He  soon  after  completed  his 
breach  with  Rome  by  marrying,  and  his  home  became 
a  refuge  for  the  persecuted  brethern*,  who  came  to  Stras- 
burg  from  other  lands  and  cities.  Zell  was  a  ZwingKan 
in  his  belief,  but  took  little  part  in  theological  con- 
troversies. 

But  God  soon  raised  up  helpers,  to  aid  him  in  the  work 
of  reforming  Strasburg.  The  one  was  Capito,  who  had 
been  cathedral  preacher  at  Mayence,  who  came  to  St. 
Thomas  as  provost.  Another  helper  was  Jacob  Sturm. 
Born  at  Strasburg,  he  belonged  to  a  family  which,  for 
more  than  two  centuries,  had  given  Strasburg  its  ablest 
magistrates.  After  1522  Sturm  stood  at  the  head  of 
the  government  of  this  free  city.  From  1525  to  1552 
as  the  representative  of  Strasburg  he  took  part  in  ninety- 
one  political  and  religious  negotiations.  He  was  one 
of  the  most  influential  councillors  of  Germany.  As 
early  as  1524  he  had  openly  declared  for  Protestantism 
and  freedom  of  conscience,  without  any  interference  from 
emperor  or  pope.  He  was  a  tower  of  strength  for 
Protestantism. 

But  the  leader  of  the  Strasburg  reformation  was 
Martin  Bucer.     He  was  born  at  Schlettstadt,    in    1491. 


30  THE    REFORMED   CHURCH    OF    GERMANY. 

In  the  celebrated  Latin  school  there,  he  showed  such 
precocity,  that  his  friends  prophesied  '  he  would  become 
a  pope  if  he  could/  Under  the  influence  of  Udenheim, 
he,  with  his  friend  Beatus  Rhenanus,  was  introduced  to 
the  teaching  of  humanism.*  Bucer  hoped  to  become  a 
teacher  of  these  new  sciences  without  becoming  a  priest ; 
but,  as  no  way  seemed  to  open  to  him,  he  was  compelled 
to  enter  the  Church.  In  1506  he  joined  the  preaching 
order  of  the  Dominicans,  who,  strange  to  say,  called 
themselves  ^  reformed.'  But  his  Latin  books  were  taken 
away  by  them,  and  he  was  compelled  to  study  the  dry 
dialectics  of  Lombard  and  Aquinas,  two  teachers  of 
Catholic  theology.  Wearied  of  this,  he  tried  to  get 
away  to  Heidelberg,  where  there  was  a  large  monastery 
of  his  order,  and  where  he  would  have  the  advantages 
of  the  university ;  especially  as  John  Agricola  had 
already  introduced  the  humanistic  studies  into  the 
university.  The  prior  of  his  convent  sympathized  with 
the  ambitious  boy  ;  so  he  was  sent  to  Heidelberg.  Here 
he  studied  the  Bible ;  and,  even  at  some  danger  to  him- 
self, began  to  teach  it  to  the  younger  brethren  of  his 
order.    Luther's  writings  made  a  deep  impression  on  him. 

*Hiimaiiism  was  the  progressive  culture  of  its  day.  It  in- 
cluded the  study  of  Greek,  a  new  language  then  to  Europe. 
The  study  of  Greek  led  to  the  reading  of  the  Bible  in  the  origi- 
nal, and  thus  unveiled  the  errors  of  Rome.  The  study  of  the 
new  sciences  led  to  a  progressive  spirit,  which  would  not  be  re- 
strained by  tbe  shackles  of  Romanism,  but  broke  with  them 
and  formed  Protestantism. 


CONVERSION    OF    BUCER.  31 

Luther's  visit  to  Heidelberg  in  1518  clinched  those  im- 
pressions. For  Luther,  accompanied  by  Staupitz,  came 
to  Heidelberg  on  a  general  visitation  to  his  order. 
While  there,  he  held,  in  April,  1518,  an  open  discussion 
on  forty  theses,  in  the  Augustinian  convent.  The  court, 
university  and  citizens  attended  this  discussion,  which 
set  Heidelberg  on  fire,  and  spread  throughout  all  southern 
Germany.  The  next  day  Bucer  had  a  private  confer- 
ence with  Luther.  The  Augustinians  and  Dominicans 
were  rival  orders,  but  Luther  was  so  pleased  with  Bucer, 
that  he  declared  that  Bucer  was  the  only  brother  of  the 
Dominican  order  ^'  without  guile."  For  trying  to 
spread  Luther's  doctrines  among  his  order,  Bucer  was 
persecuted,  and  finally  compelled  to  flee  from  Heidel- 
berg. He  went  to  Spire,  where  Ulric  von  Hutten  sent 
him  to  Francis  von  Sickingen,  who  protected  him  from 
the  wrath  of  his  order.  He  was  finally  released  from 
the  authority  and  persecutions  of  his  order,  through  the 
intervention  of  Ulric  von  Hutten,  and  transferred  by 
the  bishop  of  Spire  to  the  secular  clergy.  He  then  be- 
came court  chaplain  of  Elector  Frederick  II.  of  the 
Palatinate,  hoping  to  be  able  to  influence  him  to  Protest- 
antism, as  the  Elector  was  leaning  that  way.  But 
Bucer,  weary  of  the  frivolity  of  his  court,  left  it  and 
went  in  1522  to  Sickingen,  who  appointed  him  pastor 
at  Landstuhl.  While  there,  he  married  a  nun,  and,  as 
he  was  one  of  the  first  priests  to  marry,  he  had  to    bear 


32  THE   REFORMED   CHURCH    OF   GERMANY. 

much  odium  on  account  of  it.  He  then  went  to  Wpis- 
senberg,  where  he  founded  an  evangelical  Church.  But 
having  been  excommunicated  by  the  bishop  of  Spire,  he 
fled  to  Strasburg,  hoping  to  find  in  that  free  city  an 
asylum.  Here  he,  at  first,  lectured  on  the  Pauline 
Epistles  to  a  circle  of  scholars  in  ZelPs  house.  He  was 
very  poor,  and  wrote  to  Zwingli  for  help.  Ulric  von 
Hutten  was  then  at  Zurich  and  interceded  for  him. 
Thus  Bucer  was  led  into  correspondence  with  the  Swiss, 
and  early  expressed  a  greater  preference  for  their  doc- 
trines than  for  Luther's.  Zell  allowed  Bucer  to  lecture 
in  the  chapel  of  St.  Lawrence,  and  as  the  bishop  had 
stopped  his  preaching,  he  loaned  him  his  wooden  pulpit, 
from  which  Bucer  taught  the  gospel  to  an  increasing 
congregation.  The  Catholics  tried  to  stop  this.  One 
day,  while  Bucer  was  preaching  in  the  cathedral,  the 
monks  in  the  choir  of  the  church  began  singing  their 
service,  so  as  to  drown  his  voice.  Bucer's  listeners 
murmured  at  the  interruption,  and  one  of  them,  a  joiner 
by  trade,  went  to  the  monks  in  the  choir  of  the  church, 
and  advised  them  to  wait  until  the  end  of  Bucer's  ser- 
mon. But  as  words  passed  and  the  monks  began  to 
defend  themselves,  a  riot  became  imminent.  Bucer's 
congregation  picked  up  their  stools  and  footstools  to 
use  against  the  insolent  monks,  when,  just  then,  the 
chief  magistrate  appeared,  and  both  parties  were  sum- 
moned to  appear  before  the  city  council   the   next   day. 


BUCER   IN    STRASBURG.  33  ' 

It  happened  that  about  this  time  German  mass  was 
celebrated  in  the  St.  John's  Chapel  of  St.  Lawrence 
Church,  and  the  Lord's  supper  administered  in  two 
kinds  at  St.  Thomas  Church.  Thus,  the  evangelical 
influences  became  strong  to  aid  him.  Bucer's  father  be- 
came a  resident  of  Strasburg.  He,  too,  exerted  himself 
for  his  son  ;  and  wrote  that,  if  he  taught  anything  con- 
trary to  the  Scripture,  he  would  be  willing  to  die.  All 
these  influences  led  the  city  council  to  take  Bucer  under 
their  protection.  This  threatened  riot  brought  matters 
to  a  crisis  ;  for  the  city  council  ordered,  that  nothing 
but  the  pure  gospel  should  be  preached  in  Strasburg. 
In  ]  524,  the  priests  of  St.  Aurelian  Church  refused  to 
obey  the  city  council  and  become  citizens  of  Strasburg  ; 
so  Bucer,  who  had  now  become  a  citizen,  was  unani- 
mously elected  pastor  of  that  Church.  It  appears  that 
many  people  made  pilgrimages  to  St.  Aurelian's  to 
be  cured  of  the  fever  at  the  saint's  tomb.  Bucer 
therefore,  preached  against  all  these  Komish  supersti- 
tious, so  that  his  parishioners  removed  the  wonder-work- 
ing body  of  the  saint  and  destroyed  the  grave. 

Bucer,  having  come  in  correspondence  with  the 
Swiss,  began  to  be  influenced  toward  their  greater  sim- 
plicity of  service  and  doctrine.  Strasburg  also  began 
to  feel  the  influence  of  the  neighboring  French  Reform- 
ed Church.  Farel,  the  Elijah  of  the  Alps,  came  to 
Strasburg,  and  remained  there  as  pastor  of  the   French 


34  THE    REFORMED   CHURCH    OF    GERMANY. 

Church  for  fifteen  months.  Lefevre,  the  first  of  the  re- 
formers, and  Roussel,  the  court  chaplain  of  Queen 
Margaret  of  Navarre,  also  stayed  at  Strasburg.  Capito 
especially  was  affected  by  these  French  Reformed  min- 
isters, although  all  felt  their  influence. 

But  the  first  breach  between  Bucer  and  Luther  came 
in  1525.  Gerbel,  a  jurist  of  Strasburg,  wrote  to  Luther 
against  the  Strasburg  ministers,  charging  them  with 
departing  from  Lutheranism.  So  Bucer  and  Capito, 
anxious  to  preserve  peace  and  unity,  sent  Caselius  to 
Luther  at  Wittenberg,  to  act  as  mediator.  Luther  was 
not  satisfied  with  their  statements  about  the  Lord's  sup- 
per. "  One  or  the  other  of  the  two  parties  must  be  of 
Satan,''  he  said.  Caselius  returned,  and  Bucer  saw 
with  deep  sorrow,  that  the  bond  of  unity  between 
Luther  and  themselves  was  broken.  The  result  was 
that  Bucer  inclined  more  and  more  away  from  the 
Lutherans,  and  toward  the  Swiss.  This  shows  itself 
quite  clearly  in  the  fourth  part  of  Luther's  Postiles, 
which  Bucer  translated  from  the  German  into  Latin,  at 
the  request  of  the  Italian  refugees  at  Strasburg.  In 
this  translation,  Bucer  made  some  changes  in  the  doc- 
trine of  the  Lord's  supper,  that  angered  Luther  very 
much.  In  1528  the  relations  between  Bucer  and 
the  Swiss  became  so  close,  that  Bucer  attended  a  dispu- 
tation at  Berne.  In  1528  Bucer  issued  his  ''  Dialogus," 
in  which  he  reproved  the  coarse  language   that    Luther 


BREACH    BETWEEN    BUCEU    AND    LUTHER.  35 

had  used.  Luther  in  return,  wrote  to  his  friend  Gerbel 
in  Strasburg,  "  that  he  (Gerbel)  must  live  among  beasts, 
vipers,  lions,  panthers,  and  was  in  greater  danger  than 
Daniel  in  the  den  of  lions."  In  1529  this  intimacy  of 
Strasburg  with  the  Swiss  was  further  aided  by  the  visit 
of  ^wingli  on  his  way  to  the  conference  at  Marburg. 
Zwingli  was  very  cordially  received  at  Strasburg,  and 
during  his  stay  of  twelve  days,  preached  with  great  ac- 
ceptance. At  Marburg,  Bucer  openly  sided  with 
Zwingli  and  the  Swiss  against  Luther.  Luther,  when 
he  saw  Bucer,  pointed  his  finger  at  him,  and  said  sneer- 
ingly,  "  you  are  a  knave."  Nevertheless,  Bucer  labored 
for  harmony  and  a  union  between  Luther  and  Zwingli 
at  this  conference. 

In  1530  came  the  great  Diet  of  Augsburg.  The 
boldness  of  the  Protestants  at  that  Diet  was  quite  mark- 
ed. Landgrave  Phillip  of  Hesse  opened  the  gates  of 
the  cathedral,  and  had  his  chaplain  Schnepff  preach 
the  word  of  salvation  in  it;  and  on  May  fifteenth, 
Phillip  ordered  Cellarius,  a  Zwinglian  and  a  pastor  of 
Augsburg,  to  preach  in  the  cathedral.  After  this  the 
Landgrave  settled  down  to  St.  Ulric  Church,  and  the 
Elector  of  Saxony  to  St.  Catharine's,  where  the  pure 
gospel  was  preached  to  great  crowds.  The  whole  city 
seemed  to  incline  to  Protestantism,  but  to  Zwing- 
lianism  rather  than  to  Lutheranism.  But  when,  later, 
the  Emperor  arrived,  the  business  of  the   Diet    began ; 


36  THE   REFORMED   CHURCH   OF   GERMANY. 

and  Melancthon  presented  the  Augsburg  Confession  to 
the  Emperor,*  Bucer  hoped,  that  that  confession  would 
be  so  worded  that  the  Strasburg  delegates  could  sign  it, 
and  be  protected  by  it.  But  that  confession  was  so 
worded  as  to  exclude  them;  though  at  Landgrave 
Phillip's  request,  it  did  not  condemn  the  Zwinglians  by 
name. 

As  the  Strasburg  delegates  found  that  they  .were 
shut  out  from  signing  the  Augsburg  Confession,  they 
deemed  it  necessary,  (as  the  Emperor  had  asked  a  state- 
ment of  doctrine  from  all  the  evangelical  states,)  to  draw 
up  a  confession  of  their  own  and  present  it.  Bucer  and 
Capito  drew  up  a  confession  of  twenty-three  articles, 
called  the  Tetrapolitana,  [  'of  four  cities' — because  it 
was  signed  by  the  four  cities  of  Strasburg,  Constance, 
Memmingen  and  Lindau.)  This  was  the  first  Reform- 
ed Confession  of  Germany.  On  the  article  on  the  Lord's 
supper  it  differed  from  the  Augsburg  Confession  in 
keeping  the  relations  of  Christ's  body  to  the  bread  in 
the  background. t  There  is  nothing  said  of  the  recep- 
tion of  the  body  of  Christ  through  the  mouth,  or  of  the 
blessing  on  unbelievers  who  partake  of  the  Lord's  sup- 

•*His  confession  was  read  before  the  Emperor  in  the  saloon 
of  the  old  Episcopal  palace,  which  was  small  and  held  only  two 
hundred  persons.  But,  as  it  was  not  raised  high  above  the 
ground,  those  who  stood  outside  could  hear  it. 

fit  says,  "  Christ  offers  to  his  followers  His  very  body  and 
blood  as  spiritual  food  and  drink,  whereby  their  souls  are  nour- 
ished unto  ererlasting  life." 


BUCER   AT   THE    AUGSBURG    DIET.  37 

per.  In  these  respects,  it  differs  from  the  Lutheran. 
Like  all  Reformed  confessions,  it  gives  a  prominent 
position  to  the  authority  of  the  Scriptures,  ordering  that 
nothing  should  be  taught  in  the  churches,  but  what  was 
contained  in  the  word  of  God  or  fairly  deduced  from  it. 
While  on  the  authority  of  the  Bible,  the  Lutherans, 
from  prudence,  were  silent  in  their  confession.  The 
Tetrapolitana  also  rejects  the  worship  of  images,  on 
which  the  Augsburg  is  also  silent.  Thus  the  Tetra- 
politana was  more  outspoken  against  the  errors  of  Rome 
than  the  Augsburg ;  and  it  reveals  in  itself  the  germs 
of  future  Calvinism.  In  1531  the  Strasburg  delegates, 
agreeing  with  it  in  essentials,  had  to  sign  the  Augsburg 
confession,  in  order  to  join  the  Smalcald  League  of 
Princes.  But  Bucer  remained  true  to  the  old  Tetra- 
politana, and  on  his  deathbed  reconfessed  it  as  his,  in 
his  last  will  and  testament.  This  Diet  of  Augsburg 
may  be  called  the  Diet  of  confessions ;  for  Zwingli  also 
sent  a  confession  to  the  Emperor.  His  confession  was 
more  radical  even  than  the  Tetrapolitana,  although  in 
the  Lord's  supper  he  acknowledges  that  the  true  body 
of  Christ  was  present — an  advance  on  his  previous  state- 
ments. The  Tetrapolitana  afterwards  was  made  the 
basis  of  the  Wittenberg  Concord.  In  1533  a  Synod 
lasting  ten  days,  under  the  presidency  of  Jacob  Sturm, 
adopted  sixteen  articles  of  doctrine  and  government  for 
Strasburg.     These  made  the  church  of  Strasburg  much 


38  THE   REFORMED   CHURCH    OF   GERMANY. 

simpler  than  that  of  Wittenberg  in  its  rites,  and 
contrasted  strangely  with  the  semi-catholic  customs  re- 
tained in  that  Saxon  country.  Images  and  many  of  the 
altars  were  put  out  of  the  churches.  But  in  their  re- 
forms they  did  not  go  quite  as  far  as  the  Reformed  did 
afterwards ;  for  private  communion,  private  confession, 
organs  and  an  altar  in  each  of  the  churches,  were  per- 
mitted to  remain.  These  the  Reformed  afterwards  en- 
tirely abolished  in  their  churches  in  Germany. 

This  completed  the  conversion  of  Strasburg  to  Prot- 
estantism, and  Bucer  now  had  time  to  attend  to  other 
matters.  Landgrave  Phillip  of  Hesse  having  conquer- 
ed Wurtemberg  and  restored  it  to  Duke  Ulric,  Bucer 
went  there  to  complete  the  conversion  of  that  land  to 
Protestantism.  In  one  part,  *  ob  der  steig,'  Zwinglianism 
prevailed,  in  *  Unter  den  Steig'  Lutheranism  prevailed. 
Had  the  conquest  occurred  before  the  death  of  Zwingli, 
Wurtemberg  would  probably  have  become  Reformed. 
Or  had  it  taken  place  before  the  Diet  of  Augsburg,  it 
might  have  become  Reformed.  But  now  Wurtem- 
berg, in  order  to  receive  the  protection  of  the  Augs- 
burg confession,  which  was  the  only  confession  legally 
acknowledged  in  Germany,  became  Lutheran.  Bucer 
was  now  free  to  begin  his  union  efforts  to  bring  the 
Lutherans  and  Reformed  together.  He  was  the  great 
peacemaker  of  the  sixteenth  century.  Jacob  Sturm 
always  aimed  to  bring  these  two  faiths   together,    from 


bucer's  efforts  for  unity.       39 

political  motiv^es,  because  of  dangers  of  disunion  that 
threatened  Strasburg  for  being  Reformed.  So  Bucer 
began  his  efforts  toward  union.  First  at  Constance  and 
then  at  a  conference  with  Melancthon  at  Cassel,  they 
agreed  to  a  compromise  about  the  Lord's  supper.  The 
result  was  that  in  May,  1536,  Bucer  and  Capito  went  to 
Wittenberg  to  meet  Luther  and  Melancthon,  and  draw 
up  a  confession  on  which  they  could  unite.  Since  the 
death  of  Zwingli,  the  Swiss  were  more  concessive. 
Luther,  too,  was  in  a  softer  mood.  So  they  agreed  on  a 
compromise  confession,  called  the  Wittenberg  Concord. 
Melancthon  drew  it  up.  Its  phraseology  is  Lutheran  ; 
but  it  allowed  a  Reformed  interpretation  of  the  sacra- 
ment. It  asserts  that  the  body  and  blood  of  Christ  are 
truly  present  and  offered  in  the  sacrament.  The  differ- 
ence between  the  reformers  seemed  then  to  be,  whether 
the  body  and  blood  of  Christ  were  received  by  the  un- 
worthy or  not  Finally  a  lucky  inspiration  seized  Lu- 
ther and  led  him  to  say,  "After  all,  why  should  we 
quarrel  about  unbelievers.  We  receive  you  as  brethren 
in  Christ,"  and  stretched  forth  his  hand  in  token  of  peace. 
So  they  came  to  a  compromise  on  the  communion  of  un- 
believers, by  a  distinction  between  the  unworthy  and 
godless.  The  word  ^unworthy'  was  used  ;  but  with  the 
understanding  that  the  godless  did  not  receive  the  body 
and  blood  in  the  bread  and  wine.  In  this  Wittenberg 
Concord,  the  Lutherans,  for  the  first  time,  acknowledged 


40  THE    REFORMED   CHURCH    OF   GERMANY. 

the  Reformed  as  brethren,  in  spite  of  their  differences. 
This  was  a  great  advance  on  Luther's  position  at  Mar- 
burg, where  he  refused  fellowship  with  Zwingli. 

This  Wittenberg  Concord  proved  a  great  blessing  to 
Germany ;  for  it  gave  theological  peace  to  Germany  for 
twenty  years,  until  Luther's  death.  During  these 
twenty  years  the  Zwinglians  developed  upward,  through 
Calvin,  to  a  higher  appreciation  of  the  sacraments,  while 
on  the  other  hand,  a  large  part  of  the  Lutherans  develop- 
ed downward,  through  Melancthon,  toward  Calvin's 
position.  Thus  Germany  became  theologically,  as  well 
as  politically,  united  against  Catholicism,  on  the  basis  of 
the  Wittenberg  Concord.  Had  it  remained  so  united, 
there  would  probably  have  been  no  Thirty  Years'  war, 
with  its  untold  horrors. 

Bucer,  having  healed  the  breach  between  Lutheranism 
and  the  Reformed  Church,  as  well  as  it  could  be  healed, 
now  had  time  to  devote  himself  more  fully  to  the  affairs 
of  the  church  at  Strasburg.  The  Latin  School,  founded 
more  than  a  decade  of  years  before,  was  enlarged  into  a 
Gymnasium.*  John  Sturm,  one  of  the  most  learned 
men  of  his  day,  was  called  from  Paris  to  Strasburg,  to 
become  its  rector.  He  became  one  of  the  most  remark- 
able men  in  Germany.  Discarding  the  old  scholastic 
methods  of  teaching,  he  adopted  tlie  new  humanistic 
principles,    and  aimed    to    unite   classic   learning   with 

*This  school  adjoined  the  New  Kirche. 


COMING   OF   CALVIN.  41 

evangelical  piety,  science  with  religion.  His  method  of 
teaching  thoroughly  revolutionized  the  whole  of  South- 
ern Germany.  But  his  especial  significance  to  us  is 
that  he  became  a  tower  of  strength  to  the  Reformed 
Church. 

Another  impulse  toward  the  Reformed  faith  was 
given  by  the  arrival  of  Calvin  in  1538.  Calvin  had 
visited  Strasburg  before,  in  1534,  when  fleeing  from 
Paris.  At  that  time  he  arrived  at  Strasburg  in  a  sorry 
plight.  One  of  his  servants  had  stolen  all  his  money. 
Had  not  the  other  servant  come  to  his  help,  he  might 
never  have  reached  Strasburg.  He  then  stayed  with 
Zell,  whose  wife  kept  open  house  for  all  refugees.  Since 
then  Bucer  had  met  Calvin  at  Berne,  in  1537,  when 
Calvin  so  wonderfully  healed  the  strife  about  the  sac- 
raments in  the  Swiss  churches.  Bucer  there  learned  to 
admire  Calvin's  genius.  And  when  Calvin  was  driven 
out  of  Geneva,  Bucer  urged  him  to  come  to  Strasburg. 
He  wanted  Calvin  to  aid  him  in  the  organization  of  the 
church,  and  also  to  preach  to  the  French  refugees,  of 
whom  there  were  1500  at  Strasburg.  Calvin  accepted 
the  call  and,  coming  to  Strasburg,  began  to  preach  to 
the  French  refugees  in  the  choir  of  the  church  of  the 
Dominicans.  Afterwards  the  church  of  ^St.  Nicolas 
by  the  waves,'  near  the  111  river,  was  given  to  him  for 
worship.  His  French  church,  which  he  served  from 
1538  to  1540,  became  a  blooming  garden  of  the  Lord. 
4 


42  THE    REFORMED   CHURCH    OF   GERMANY. 

He  introduced  the  pure  presbyterial  form  of  govern- 
ment into  the  church,  which  was  a  novelty  to  the 
people  of  Strasburg,  and  his  church  became  a  model 
of  discipline  He  preached  twice  a  week,  met  the  eld- 
ers and  deacons  once  a  week  for  study  and  prayer ;  until 
they  became  so  proficient,  that  some  of  them  were  able 
to  take  his  place  in  preaching.  But  his  ministry  was 
not  limited  to  his  church.  He  was  soon  asked  to  give 
lectures  in  the  Academy  on  divinity.  He  there  lec- 
tured on  John,  Romans,  &c.,  and  developed  himself  as 
an  exegete  or  interpreter  of  Scripture.  Luther  was  the 
translator,  Calvin  the  exegete,  of  the  reformation.  He 
also  prepared  a  new  edition  of  his  Institutes,  in  which 
he  elaborated  more  fully  his  views  on  predestination 
and  church  discipline.  Luther  expressed  himself  pleased 
with  Calvin's  Institutes.  For  Calvin  there  joined  the 
middle  party  between  the  Lutherans  and  the  Zwingli- 
ans,  and  labored  for  peace.  He  sought  to  avoid  the 
positive  error  of  Luther  and  the  negative  error  of 
Zwingli ;  in  Luther,  the  feeding  of  the  unworthy,  in 
Zwingli,  the  bread  and  wine  as  signs.*  Thus  during  his 
stay,  Strasburg  became,  next  to  Wittenberg,  the  most 
important  religious  centre  of  Germany.  Wittenberg 
and  Strasburg  were 'the  two  eyes'  of  Germany.     But 

*He  taught  "that  the  believer  was,  through  faith,  fed,  only 
spiritually  but  in  a  real  way,  by  -the  body  and  blood  of  Christ 
at  the  supper,"  but  that  unbelievers  received  merely  bread  and 
wine. 


CALVIN    AND    MELANCTHON.  43 

there  was  a  special  provideuce  about  his  coming  to  Stras- 
burg.  God  meant  it  so.  He  came  to  Germany  just  in 
time  to  oifset  the  Catholics  in  their  efforts  to  win  back 
the  Protestants  to  the  Pope.  Conferences  for  that  pur- 
pose were  held  at  Frankford,  Hagenau  and  Worms. 
Melancthon  and  Bucer  were  inclined  to  be  yielding 
and  concessive — would  have  been  swayed  to  some  ex- 
tent by  the  Catholics,  had  it  not  been  for  the  presence 
of  Calvin  and  his  uncompromising  opposition  to  the  pa- 
pacy. The  second  providence  in  his  visit  to  Germany 
was,  that  Calvin  learned  to  understand  the  German  re- 
formers and  the  German  controversies.  And  Melanc- 
thon learned  to  understand  the  Calvinists  better.  It 
brought  Melancthon  and  Calvin  together.  This  stay 
at  Strasburg  broadened  Calvin's  mind  and  sympathies. 
Calvin  attended  the  three  conferences  between  the  Prot- 
estants and  Catholics  on  union.  In  1539  he  went  to 
the  conference  at  Frankford.  Here,  for  the  first  time, 
he  saw  the  leading  princes  and  theologians  of  Germany  ; 
and  was  able  to  form  a  just  estimate  of  the  position  of 
Protestantism  in  Germany.  Here  he  first  met  Me- 
lancthon. Melancthon  and  Calvin  were  the  two,  best 
fitted  to  come  to  an  agreement  between  the  Reformed 
and  the  Lutherans.  Calvin  set  before  Melancthon  his 
articles  of  faith.  To  his  surprise,  Melancthon  agreed 
to  them.  But  while  they  were  about  to  agree  on  the 
doctrine  of  the  Lord's  supper,  they  could   not  agree  on 


44  THE   REFORMED   CHURCH    OF   GERMANY. 

church  customs  aud  discipline.  Meiancthon  was  pli- 
able aud  yielding  here,  Calvin,  unyielding.  Those  cere- 
monies of  the  Lutheran  Church,  which  were  relics  of 
Catholicism,  such  as  singing  in  Latin,  images,  exorcism, 
&c.,  Calvin  bitterly  opposed  ;  while  Meiancthon  pleaded 
their  necessity.  Neither  did  they  agree  on  the  doctrine 
of  predestination.  Calviu  is  said  to  have  rebuked  Me- 
iancthon for  holding  to  synergism  (thus  emphasizing 
man's  will  over  against  God's  will).  Modern  writers, 
who  try  to  make  the  German  Reformed  Church  Me- 
lancthonian,  must  remember  that,  however  Meianc- 
thon and  Calvin  neared  each  other  on  the  Lord's  sup- 
per, they  were  yet  wide  apart  in  cultus,  discipline  and 
predestination.  In  1540  Calvin  married  Idelette  De 
Bure.  He  greatly  enjoyed  his  married  life,  and  found 
his  wife  a  true  helpmeet.  In  1541  Calvin  attended  the 
third  conference  at  Worms.  To  this  conference,  on  ac- 
count of  the  abilities  he  displayed  at  Frankford  and 
Hagenau,  he  went  as  the  deputy  of  Brunswick-Lune- 
burg,  as  well  as  of  Strasburg.  At  Worms  he  again  met 
Meiancthon,  and  also  Cruciger.  One  day,  as  the  Dean 
of  Passau,  in  private  conference,  was  vanquished  by 
Calvin,  his  hearers  were  so  delighted  by  his  learning, 
that  Meiancthon  gave  him  the  title  of  'The  Theolo- 
gian.' From  that  time  a  strong  tie  of  affection  bound 
Calvin  and  Meiancthon  together.  Calvin,  a  year  after 
the  death  of  Meiancthon,  wrote,   "O,  Phillip  Melanc- 


CALVIN   AND    MELANCHTHON.  45 

thon,  for  it  is  upon  thee  I  call,  who  now  livest  with 
Christ  in  God,  and  art  there  waiting  for  us,  until  we 
also  be  gathered  with  thee  to  that  blessed  rest.  A  hun- 
dred times,  worn  out  with  fatigue  and  overwhelmed 
with  care,  thou  didst  lay  thy  head  upon  my  breast  and 
say,  ^  Would  to  God  I  might  die  here  on  thy  breast.' 
And  I,  a  thousand  times  since,  have  earnestly  desired 
that  it  be  granted  us  to  be  together."  A  very  interest- 
ing fact  about  Calvin's  visit  to  Worms  was,  that  he  there 
signed  the  Augsburg  Confession.  At  this  conference 
the  Altered  Augsburg  Confession  was  used  for  the  first 
time.  Calvin  signed  it,  as  he  says,  "willingly  and  with 
his  whole  heart."  Another  conference,  to  unite  Protestant- 
ism and  Romanism,  was  held  at  Ratisbon.  Calvin  dif- 
fered from  Melanchthon,  who  was  willing  to  make  con- 
cessions to  the  Catholics.  Referring  to  this,  he  speaks 
about  their  'being  satisfied  with  a  half-Christ.'  But  the 
delegates  from  the  city  of  Geneva  had  come  to  both 
Worms  and  Ratisbon,  to  urge  him  to  leave  Germany 
and  return  to  Geneva.  Strasburg  was  unwilling  to 
give  him  up.  (Indeed  so  great  an  influence  had  he 
gained  at  Strasburg,  that  in  1551,  when  Strasburg  de- 
liberated about  sending  a  delegate  to  the  Council  of 
Trent,  who  should  intercede  for  the  Strasburg  churches 
before  the  Council,  the  ministers  concluded  that  Calvin 
was  the  most  suitable.)  Bucer  alone  urged  him  to  go 
to  Geneva,  although  it  would   be   his  loss  and  Stras- 


46     THE  REFORMED  CHURCH  OF  GERMANY. 

burg's.  Thus  Calvin's  brief  stay  gave  him  an  influence 
and  reputation  in  South  Germany,  which  prepared  the 
way  for  an  entrance  of  his  doctrines  twenty  years  later. 
Then  came  the  Augsburg  Interim  of  1548,  which  was 
ordered  to  be  introduced  into  Strasburg.  The  Prot- 
estants were  required  to  conform  to  the  Catholic  rites  of 
fasting,  prayers  to  the  virgin  and  saints,  festival  days, 
and  processions.  But  Bucer,  usually  so  yielding,  was 
here  firm  as  a  rock.  He  answered  the  Elector  of  Brand- 
enburg, who  was  to  introduce  the  Interim  into  Strasburg, 
''  Man  dares  do  nothing  against  conscience  and  the 
truth."  The  Interim  was  forced  on  Strasburg ;  and  as  a 
result,  Bucer,  rather  than  sacrifice  his  conscience,  resign- 
ed. His  resignation  was  accepted,  especially  as  some  of 
the  city  council  were  opposed  to  Bucer's  rather  strict 
church  discipline.  So  in  1549,  Bucer,  accompanied  by 
Fagius,  went  to  England.  Melancthon,  Calvin,  Land- 
grave Phillip  of  Hesse,  had  invited  him  to  labor  in  their 
respective  homes.  But  Bucer  preferred  England,  where 
he  would  be  free  from  the  Interim.  He  there  became 
professor  at  Cambridge,  and  exercised  considerable  influ- 
ence in  the  preparation  of  the  Book  of  Common  Prayer, 
and  the  forty-two  Articles,  afterward  shortened  to  the 
thirty-nine  Articles — the  present  creed  of  the  Anglican 
Church.  He  died  there,  and  was  buried  in  the  leading 
church  of  Cambridge,  with  great  pomp.  Queen  Mary 
subsequently  had  his  bones  burnt ;    but  a  monument  to 


47 


his  memory  was  erected  by  Queen  Elizabeth.  In  1552 
the  Interim  was  lifted  from  Strasburg,  and  she  returned 
to  the  full  enjoyment  of  her  former  Protestant  faith.  In 
1553  Jacob  Sturm,  the  councillor  of  Strasburg,  died. 
His  irenic  influence  had  kept  the  Lutherans  from  at- 
tacking the  Reformed.  But,  after  his  death,  Marbach, 
who  had  become  professor  of  theology,  labored  hard  to 
introduce  high  Lutheranism.  As  president  of  the  church 
conference,  Marbach  had  great  influence.  He  wanted 
to  undermine  the  Tetrapolitana  confession,  which  had 
been  the  confession  of  Strasburg,  in  the  interest  of  the 
Augsburg  confession.  There  had  been  a  good  deal  of 
freedom  allowed  in  matters  of  worship.  Marbach  urged 
uniformity,  and  wanted  to  introduce  the  Lutheran  hymn 
book,  instead  of  Bucer's,  which  was  then  in  use.  He 
also  aimed  to  drive  the  Reformed,  especially  the  French, 
out  of  the  city.  Peter  Martyr,  driven  out  of  England 
by  bloody  Mary,  arrived,  and  was  required  to  sign  the 
Augsburg  confession.  This  was  something  new.  Zanch- 
ius  had  to  do  the  same  thing,  when  he  arrived.  These 
things  show  that  the  influence  of  high  Lutheranism  was 
growing.  Marbach  brought  the  pictures  back  into  the 
churches.  In  1555  Marbach  attacked  Garnier,  the 
pastor  of  the  French  Church,  and  compelled  him  to 
leave  the  city.  The  younger  preachers,  supported  by 
Marbach,  then  began  to  denounce  the  Reformed.  Peter 
Martyr  left,  and  went  to  Zurich ;  and  Zanchius  was  left 


48  THE    REFORMED   CHURCH    OF   GERMANY. 

as  the  only  Reformed  professor  of  theology  at  Strasburg. 
In  1661  Marbach  attacked  Zanchius  for  teaching  the 
doctrine  of  predestination.  This  was  the  first  attack  by 
the  Lutherans  on  the  Calvinistic  doctrine  of  predestina- 
tion. Zanchius  appealed  to  the  Hessian  theologians  for 
an  opinion.  They  supported  him  in  his  views  of  pre- 
destination. The  first  attack  upon,  and  first  defense  of, 
predestination,  were  made  in  Germany.  But  though  Ja- 
cob Sturm  was  dead,  John  Sturm  remained.  Although  a 
Frenchman,  he  was  the  ^  Cicero  of  Germany,'  the  finest 
teacher  after  Melancthon.  Under  his  matchless  teach- 
ing, many  of  the  nobles  of  Germany  were  educated,  and 
quite  a  number  of  them  afterward  joined  his  Reformed 
church.  Being  a  Frenchman,  he  early  took  the  French 
refugees  at  Strasburg  under  his  special  care.  He  came 
to  the  help  of  Zanchius,  when  attacked,  by  publishing 
Bucer's  work  on  the  Lord's  supper.  Zanchius  had  also 
made  himself  unpopular  with  the  high  Lutherans,  by  at- 
tacking their  new  doctrine  of  ubiquity.  Finally,  in 
1563,  a  compromise  was  framed.*  But  even  this  con- 
sensus contained  in  it  germs  of  new  quarrels.  Zanch- 
ius, wearied  with  strife,  left  Strasburg,  went  to  Chiaven- 
na,  and  afterwards  to  Heidelberg.  Sturm  remained  as 
leader  of  the  Reformed.  In  1577  Duke  Ulric  of 
Wurtemberg  sent  a  copy  of  the  Formula  of  Concord  to 

-•■This  expressed  the  Lutheran  doctrine  of  the  Lord's  supper, 
but  on  predestination  held  that  all  who  believed  were  saved. 


PERSECUTION  OF  REFORMED  AT  STRASBURG.   49 

the  magistrates,  for  adoption.  They  rejected  it  Pap- 
pus urged  its  adoption,  but  the  university  with  Dr. 
Sturm,  backed  up  the  magistrates.  Finally,  the  high 
Lutherans  drove  Sturm  from  his  position  as  rector  of 
the  University.  After  forty  years  of  service,  John 
Sturm,  the  brightest  ornament  of  the  town,  resigned  in 
1581.  The  Formula  of  Concord  was  introduced,  and 
Strasburg  became  Lutheran.  The  French  Reformed 
were  not  permitted  to  worship  in  the  city,  but  had  to  go 
to  Wolfisheim,  one  half  mile  away.*  They  also  went  to 
Bischweiler  in  the  neighboring  Palatinate.  Finally, 
after  two  hundred  years  of  exile,  the  Reformed  were 
again  allowed  to  worship  in  Strasburg  in  1789.  Thus 
Bucer's  work  of  years  was  undone.  The  Reformed 
Church  did  not  find  a  permanent  home  at  Strasburg.  It 
remained  for  the  neighboring  Palatinate  to  take  up  the 
work  for  the  Reformed  Church,  that  Strasburg  dropped. 
But  Bucer^s  work  at  Strasburg  prepared  the  way  for 
the  introduction  of  the  Reformed  faith  into  Germany. 
It  accustomed  the  Germans  to  the  simpler  rites  of  the 
Reformed  Church.  Under  the  Wittenberg:  Concord  it 
gave  them  a  right  to  exist  under  the  German  law.  And 
Strasburg  became  the  forerunner  of  Heidelberg  in  receiv- 
ing the  Reformed  faith. 

*The  Fort  Prince  Bismark  occupies  tlae  site  of  Wolfisiieim. 


CHAPTER  I.— SECTION  III. 

Hesse  and  its  Preparation  for  the  Reformed  Faith. 

Hesse,  situated  in  the  central  part  of  Germany,  was 
a  very  important  state  in  the  sixteenth  century.  It  hap- 
pened to  have  for  its  Landgrave,  or  ruler,  Phillip,  the 
most  aggressive  of  the  German  princes  of  his  time.  He 
has  been  compared  to  Phillip  of  Macedon  for  his  sub- 
tility,  and  to  Alexander  the  Great  for  his  courage.  Me- 
lancthon,  for  his  boldness,  called  him  ^  the  Macedonian.' 
Though  young  when  the  reformation  broke  out,  he  yet, 
with  a  keen  statesman's  eye,  foresaw  results,  to  which  the 
other  German  princes  were  blind.  At  first  he  persecuted 
Protestantism  in  his  dominion  ;  but  afterwards  he  fought 
for  it  as  bravely  as  he  once  persecuted  it.  The  reformation 
came  quietly  into  his  land,  but  exerted  little  influence 
until  the  prince  himself  suddenly  went  over  to  Protest- 
antism. Hesse  was  the  first  land  where  the  prince,  and 
not  the  theologians,  began  converting  his  subjects  to 
evangelical  truth. 

As  early  as  1517,  when  Luther  and  Zwingli  began 
to  preach  the  gospel,  James  Limburg,  one  of  the  Fran- 
ciscan Friars  of  Marburg,  began  preaching  it.  For 
preaching  it  to  his  brethren,  the  \vhole  monastery  rose 


LANDGRAVE    PHILLIP's    REFORMATION.  51 

against  him,  tore  him  l)y  force  from  the  pulpit,  and 
threw  him  into  a  prison,  which  had  an  open  window 
opposite  the  wall  of  the  city.  He  preached  the  gospel 
through  the  open  window  ;  and  at  night  some  of  the 
citizens  would  secretly  come  to  this  solitary  loophole  to 
hear  the  word  of  God.  These  mysterious  gatherings 
continued  for  about  two  weeks.  Suddenly  the  voice 
within  ceased  ;  the  meetings  had  been  discovered.  The 
monks  had  taken  him  from  that  prison,  and  cast  him  in 
a  vault  of  the  church,  by  a  crucifix.  For  three  months 
he  was  thus  imprisoned.  Then  one  night  a  mysterious 
covered  cart  was  driven  through  Ziegenberg,  a  village 
one  hour  south  of  Marburg,  where  some  weeping  citizens 
came  up  to  him.  Hastily  snatching  aside  the  canvas, 
they  asked  him  whither  he  was  going.  ^'  Where  God 
wills,'^  replied  the  Friar ;  and  disappeared,  probably  to 
die  in  some  unknown  prison. 

But  an  event  occurred  in  1524  that  converted  Phil- 
lip to  Protestantism.  Providence  brought  Landgrave 
Phillip  of  Hesse  and  Phillip  Melancthon  together.  As 
Phillip  was  on  his  way  to  Heidelberg  to  attend  a  shoot- 
ing match  near  Frankford,  he  met  Melancthon,  who 
was  on  a  holiday  visit  to  his  native  land,  the  Palatinate. 
The  result  of  this  conference  was  that,  in  that  same  year, 
Landgrave  Phillip  ordered  that  the  pure  gospel  should 
be  preached  in  his  territories.  The  Landgrave  had  a 
political  as  well  as  a  religious  motive  for  doing   this. 


62  THE   REFORMED    CHURCH   OF   GERMANY. 

His  land,  in  religious  affairs,  had  been  under  the  Elector 
of  Mayence.  By  going  over  to  Protestantism  and 
declaring  it  the  religion  of  the  laud,  he  freed  it  from 
the  power  of  the  Elector  of  Mayence.  So  he  joined  the 
Protestants.  But  in  order  to  have  Protestantism  fully 
introduced  into  his  territories,  he  needed  some  master 
spirit,  some  reformer,  to  help  him.  At  the  Diet  of 
Spire  he  met  the  astute  councillor  of  Strasburg,  Jacob 
Sturm,  who  recommended  to  him  Lambert  of  Avignon, 
as  the  man  suited  to  carry  out  his  plans  of  reforming  his 
land. 

Franz  Lambert  of  Avignon  was  a  remarkable  charac- 
ter. He  was  born  in  1487  in  Southern  France,  at 
Avignon,  that  second  home  of  the  popes.  His  father  had 
been  private  secretary  of  the  Catholic  Archbishop.  But 
he  died  when  Lambert  was  quite  young.  His  mother 
gave  him  to  the  Franciscans  to  be  raised  by  them.  When 
15  years  old,  he  joined  their  order  as  a  novice,  and  a 
year  later  as  a  monk.  Being  possessed  of  a  precocious, 
fiery,  ardent  temperament,  he  was  soon,  at  the  age  of  20, 
elected  to  be  apostolic  preacher  of  his  order.  This  office 
led  him  to  travel  a  great  deal  from  monastery  to  monas- 
tery. And  in  his  preaching  he  developed  peculiar  talents 
for  learning  and  eloquence.  He  became  a  modern  John 
the  Baptist,  a  second  Savonarola,  preaching  repentance. 
Instead  of  preaching  as  did  most  of  the  monks  about  the 
saints,  he  preached  from  God's  word  ;    and  that  not  in 


CONVERSION    OF    LAMBERT.  53 

Latin,  after  the  custom  of  the  day,  but  in  French,  the 
language  of  the  people.  No  wonder  the  people  heard 
him  gladly.  His  preaching  was  so  powerful,  that  once 
in  a  French  village,  after  he  had  denounced  the  wicked- 
ness and  frivolity  of  the  people,  they  willingly  gathered 
up  their  cards,  dice  and  pictures,  and  made  a  bonfire  of 
them,  as  the  Ephesians  had  done  eighteen  centuries  before. 
But  his  extraordinary  success  as  a  preacher  made  him 
enemies  in  his  order,  who  were  jealous  of  him.  The 
wickedness  of  the  monks  and  the  want  of  discipline  in 
his  own  order  also  disgusted  him.  Inward  peace  he  did 
not  find,  in  spite  of  severe  self-mortification.  So  he 
meditated  joining  another  order  of  monks,  the  Carthus- 
ians, which  was  stricter  than  his  own  ;  the  strictest  of  the 
orders  of  its  day.  He  was,  however,  prevented  from 
doing  so  by  the  calumnies  which  his  brethren  scattered 
around  about  him,  warning  the  Carthusians  against  him. 
It  happened  that,  just  about  this  time,  some  of  Luther's 
letters,  which  were  brought  to  Lyons  and  the  neighbor- 
hood by  merchants  with  their  wares,  and  were  there 
translated,  fell  into  his  hands.  He  read  them  eagerly. 
But  they  were  taken  away  from  him  and  burned  by  the 
monks.  Still  they  set  his  heart  on  fire.  He  sought  an 
opportunity  to  leave  his  monkish  life,  and  found  it  in  a 
missionary  tour  to  Switzerland.  Passing  through  Geneva 
and  Lausanne,  he  came  to  Berne,  where  he  first  came  in 
contact  with  the  reformation.     There  he  was  introduced 


54     THE  REFORMED  CHURCH  OF  GERMANY. 

to  the  new  world  of  Protestantism.     Still   wearing  his 
monk's  hood,   he  preached    at   Berne  in   Latin,  as  he 
could  not  speak  German  ;  and  those  who  understood  him, 
especially   the   priests  or  ministers  of  that  town,  were 
captivated  by  his  eloquence.       The   people  there   were 
very  much  surprised  that  a  French  monk  should  preach 
thus ;  as  the  reformation   had  heretofore  been   confined 
mainly  to  the  Germans.     He  went  to  Zurich,  where  he 
met  Zwingli,  who  converted  him  to  an    open   acknowl- 
edgement of  Protestantism.      At  a  disputation  there  he 
took  issue  with  Zwingli,  and  spoke  in  favor  of  the  doc- 
trine of  the  intercession  of  the  saints.     But  Zwingli  by 
Scripture  proofs  so  convinced  him  of  his  error  that  at  the 
close  of  the  disputation,  he  said,  "  I  declare  that  the  in- 
tercession of  the  saints  is  contrary  to  the  Scriptures,  I 
give  up  rosaries  and  intercessors,  and  will  cling  to  God 
and  Jesus  Christ  in  all  my  need."      He   threw   off    his 
monk's  cowl,  the  first  of  the   French  monks  to   do   so. 
Zwingli  thus  early  acquired  a  great  influence  over  him. 
This  intercourse  with  Zwingli  prepared  the  way  for  his 
final  conversion  to  the  Reformed  faith,  j^ears  afterward, 
at  Marburg.     Lambert  then  went  to  Germany,  hoping 
to  meet  Martin  Luther,  whose  writings  had  so  impressed 
his  soul.     He  took  the  name  of  John  Serranus,  so  as  to 
escape  the  persecutions  of  his  order,  which  had  powerful 
monasteries  in    Germany.      He   stopped    at   Eisenach, 
waiting  for  the  summons  of  the  Elector  of  Saxony   to 


LAMBERT   AT    WITTENBERG.  56 

come  to  Wittenberg.  Luther  delayed  getting  him  a  safe 
conduct,  for  he  had  been  so  often  deceived  by  runaway 
monks.  And  as  Lambert  was  the  first  French  monk  to 
espouse  the  cause  of  the  gospel,  he  was  all  the  more 
suspicious  of  him.  Finally  the  Elector  of  Saxony  sent 
money  for  Lambert  to  come  to  Wittenberg,  where  he 
arrived  in  1523. 

Luther  soon  learned  to  admire  him,  and  formed  a 
strong  attachment  for  him.       As    he  could    not    speak 
German,  Lambert  lectured  in  Latin  on  various  books  of 
the  Bible.     But  he  was  anxious  for  the   conversion  of 
his  native  land  ;  and  spent  much  of  his  time  in  translat- 
ing  evangelical  books  into  Italian  and   French.      He 
also  wrote  a  work  on  the  cloisters  which  attracted  atten- 
tion and  which  advocated  that  they  should  not  be  closed, 
but  turned  into  schools.      He   also  married  (the  first 
Franciscan  monk  to  do  so)   the  daughter  of  a   worthy 
baker  at  Herzberg.     But  he  became   very    poor.      His 
lectures  yielded  him  the  merest  pittance.      He  did    not 
want  to  be  a  burden  on  Luther  any  longer ;  so,  without 
the  knowledge  of  the  Elector,  and  against  the  advice  of 
Luther  and  Melancthon,  he  accepted  a   call  given    him 
by  the  Reformed   Church    at  Metz,    in    March,    1524. 
But  when  he  arrived  there,  he  found  that,  although  the 
Syndic  of  Metz  was  favorable  to  him,  the  Duke  of  Lor- 
raine and  nine  hundred  priests  of  the  city  were  against 
him.       The    magistrates  issued    an    order    against    his 


56  THE    REFORMED    CHURCH    OF   GERMANY. 

preaching  aud  threatened  him  with  the  punishment  of 
the  inquisition.  So,  as  the  evangelicals  were  intimidated 
by  these  threats,  he  saw  that  little  work  could  be  done 
for  the  gospel.  He  then  went  to  Strasburg,  leaving  be- 
hind him  Castellanus,  who  was  afterwards  martyred  for 
the  faith.  At  Strasburg  he  was  kindly  received.  They 
made  him  a  citizen,  gave  him  a  competence,  so  that  he 
could  maintain  himself  by  lectures  and  translations.  The 
influence  of  Luther  over  him  lessened,  while  that  of  the 
Strasburg  doctors  increased.  Its  freer  theology  widen- 
ed his  views  and  work.  He  had  a  great  longing  to  be 
for  France,  what  Luther  was  for  Germany,  and  Zwingli 
was  for  Switzerland,  the  reformer  of  that  land.  While 
waiting  for  providence  to  open  up  a  way,  by  which  he 
might  reform  his  beloved  France,  he  was  invited  to 
Hesse  by  the  Landgrave  Phillip,  that  he  might  under- 
take the  reformation  of  that  land. 

The  first  thing  Landgrave  Phillip  did,  was  to  call  a 
great  synod  of  his  clergy  at  Homberg,  a  very  suitable 
place ;  for  it  was  the  meeting  place  of  the  roads  from  the 
Rhine,  Werra  and  Main  districts.  Lambert,  just  as 
Luther  had  done  at  Wittenberg,  posted  158  theses  under 
23  titles  on  the  church  door  of  St.  Mary's  church,  the 
main  church  of  Homberg,  inviting  all  to  a  disputation. 
He  called  these  theses  '  paradoxes/  because  they  opposed 
the  generally  accepted  teachings  of  his  day  about  Cathol- 
icism.     The  Catholics   would  have    torn    them    down. 


THE   SYNOD   AT   ROMBERG.  67 

but  the  Protestants  watched  over  them.  An  interesting 
story  is  told  that  a  young  priest,  a  Dominican,  fall  of 
self-conceit,  finding  himself  too  short  to  be  able  to  read 
them,  borrowed  a  stool ;  and  getting  on  it,  began  to  read 
them  aloud.  '^All  that  is  deformed,  must  be  reformed. 
The  word  of  God  teaches  us  what  ought  to  be  so :  and 
all  reform  that  is  affected  otherwise,  is  vain.''  Having 
read  this  first  thesis,  the  young  priest  said,  *'  Hem  !  I 
shall  not  attack  that."  He  continued  reading  the  theses, 
saying  after  each  one,  "  I  can  not  attack  that  proposi- 
tion.'' Finally  he  came  to  the  fourth  thesis,  which  de- 
clared the  priesthood  of  believers  and  inveighed  against 
the  pope.  "  Certainly,"  said  the  priest,  "  I  shall  not 
attack  that  one."  At  this  moment  some  one,  either  out 
of  mischief  or  tired  of  his  endless  repetitions,  pulled  the 
stool  from  under  him,  and  he  fell  flat  on  the  ground. 
This  scene  very  aptly  illustrated  the  fall  of  Catholicism 
at  that  Synod.  On  Sabbath,  October  21,  1526,  at 
7  a.  m.,  this  first  Synod  of  Hesse  began  its  meeting  in 
the  church. 

It  seemed  as  if  all  Hesse  had  come  to  this  meeting. 
The  church  was  filled  with  prelates,  abbots,  priests, 
kniofhts  and  town  authorities.  Some  of  them  came  with 
the  intention  of  denouncing  the  Landgrave  for  dar- 
ing to  call  such  a  synod  without  ecclesiastical  authority 
from  the  Elector  of  Mayence.  Some  came  out  of  curi- 
osity. But  most  of  them  came  to  favor  and  uphold  the 
5 


58  THE    REFORMED    CHURCH    OF    GERMANY. 

Landgrave  in  his  reforms.  After  an  opening  address 
by  Chancellor  Feige,  Lambert,  in  Latin,  presented  these 
theses  against  the  abuses  of  the  Church,  and  proved 
them  from  the  Bible.  This  consumed  the  morning 
session.  In  the  afternoon  Adam  Kraft,  the  oldest  re- 
former of  Hesse,  translated  these  theses  into  German. 
Lambert  then  called  for  an  opponent  to  dispute,  and 
defend  the  papacy.  At  first  there  was  a  profound 
silence.  Many  of  the  Catholics,  who,  in  the  morning, 
had  threatened  and  bragged  about  what  they  would  do, 
left  at  dinner  time.  Finally  Nicolas  Ferber,  the  head 
of  the  Franciscan  order  at  Marburg,  entered  the  lists 
against  Lambert.  Ferber's  action  was  significant.  He 
was  the  head  of  the  order  of  monks  that  Lambert  had 
left.  It  w^as  Franciscan  against  Franciscan.  Ferber, 
too,  was  a  very  prominent  prelate,  having  been  named 
by  the  Landgrave  Phillip's  mother  as  her  executor. 
When  Phillip  was  about  going  over  to  Protestantism, 
she  urged  Ferber  to  use  all  his  influence  to  hold  Phillip 
to  Romanism.  Ferber,  therefore,  stood  forth  as  the 
representative  of  the  Roman  Catholic  power  of  Hesse. 
Ferber  declared  he  had  nothing  to  do  with  theologians 
like  Lambert.  He  spoke  for  two  hours,  proving  from 
papal  bulls  and  decrees  of  councils  that  the  Landgrave 
had  no  right  to  call  a  Synod.  But  as  he  invoked  the 
Church  fathers  to  his  assistance,  the  Landgrave  observed 
to  him,  ''  Do  not  put  forward  the  wavering  opinions  of 


DEFEAT   OF   THE    CATHOLICS.  69 

men,  but  the  word  of  God,  which  alone  strengthens  and 
fortifies  our  hearts."  He  finally  became  so  violent  that 
he  used  severe  language  against  the  Landgrave.  This 
brought  him  into  hot  water.  He  was  given  time  to 
prove  his  positions  out  of  the  Bible,  or  to  retract  what 
he  had  said  against  the  Landgrave.  Confused,  he  sat 
down,  saying,  "This  is  not  the  place  for  replying." 
Lambert  then  arose,  and,  with  a  torrent  of  Celtic  elo- 
quence, answered  him.  "  In  vain  did  Lambert  and  Feige 
urge  Ferber  to  reply.  Silence  is  ever  Rome's  refuge." 
Lambert  called  forth  three  times  for  some  one  else  to 
combat  his  positions,  but  no  one  replied  ;  until  finally 
John  Sperber,  of  Waldau,  near  Cassel,  said  that  prayers 
to  the  Virgin  should  not  be  given  up.  He,  too,  was 
answered  from  the  Bible.  Ferber  left  Hesse  and  filed  a 
protest  against  the  Synod,  at  Werliu  in  Westphalia. 
The  Franciscan  Church  at  Marburg  was  left  deserted 
and  desolate.*  In  the  defeat  of  Ferber,  the  Catholic 
party  saw  the  defeat  of  its  cause.  After  three  days  of 
discussion,  the  new  church  regulations  were  adopted. 
The  Synod  declared  that  the  Bible  was  the  rule  of  faith. 
It  founded  itself  on  the  priesthood  of  all  believers,  and 
held  that  the  Church  was  a  Church  of  converted  peo- 
ple. In  church  customs,  Lambert,  having  been  af- 
fected by  his  stay  at  Strasburg,  went  farther  than  Lu- 

*By  some  curious  coincidence  it  afterward  became  the  Re- 
formed Church  of  Marburg,  I  think. 


60  THE    REFORMED   CHURCH    OF   GERMANY. 

ther  in  his  reforms.  Images,  organs  and  bells  were  to 
be  put  out  of  the  churches,  as  had  been  done  in  Switzer- 
land. One  altar  was  enough  for  a  church  (the  church 
at  Haina  having  had  eighteen  altars).  Latin  singing 
was  to  be  dispensed  with,  but  responses  were  retained  ; 
prayer  to  the  saints  was  forbidden.  The  number  of  fast 
days  was  diminished.  And  instead  of  private  confession 
to  the  priest,  a  preparatory  service,  as  in  the  Reformed 
churches,  in  which  a  general  confession  of  sin,  was  insti- 
tuted. On  the  doctrine  of  the  Lord's  supper,  the  Hom- 
berg  decrees  were  rather  Lutheran. 

But  the  most  remarkable  deliverance  of  the  Horn- 
berg  Synod  was  in  its  church  government.  Lambert 
laid  the  first  foundation  of  the  Reformed  Church,  not 
indeed  in  doctrine,  but  in  church  government.  For  he 
does  not  seem  to  have  been  fully  converted  to  the  Zwing- 
lian  doctrines  until  the  Marburg  Conference,  three  years 
later.  But  he  aimed  to  introduce,  what  afterward  be- 
came Reformed  church  government.  The  first  Presby- 
terian church  was  founded,  not  in  Scotland,  nor  even  at 
Geneva,  but  in  Hesse,  by  Lambert  of  Avignon,  as  he 
introduced  his  church  order  at  this  Homberg  Synod. 
Each  church  was  to  choose  its  own  pastor,  elders  and 
deacons.  The  pastors  had  the  government  of  the  church 
vested  in  their  hands,  and  might  exercise  doctrine,  yes, 
even  excommunication.     Each  year,  on  the  third  Sun- 


DECREES    OF   THE    ROMBERG   SYNOD.  61 

day  after  Easter,  a  General  Synod  was  to  be  held,  com- 
posed of  the  bishops  (pastors)  and  the  deputies,  in  which 
the  prince  and  nobles  took  part ;  this  Synod  to  last 
three  days.  This  Synod  elected  three  visitors  to  inves- 
tigate the  condition  of  each  church.  As  Ranke  says, 
*'  The  features  of  it  are  the  same  as  those  in  which  the 
French,  the  Scotch  and  the  A  merican  Church  was  after- 
wards established  ;  upon  them  we  may  say  the  develop- 
ment of  North  America  rests.  They  have  an  immeas- 
urable world-historical  importance.  At  the  first  ex- 
periment they  appear  in  a  complete  form  ;  a  little  Ger- 
man Synod  adopted  them."* 

Luther  objected  to  certain  points  in  Lambert's  church 
government.  He  thought  the  church  organization  had 
been  carried  too  far,  and  the  times  were  not  yet  ripe  for 
it.  And  so  it  turned  out.  When  this  Presbyterian 
church  government  was  applied  to  different  parts  of 
Hesse,  it  was  found  difficult  to  carry  it  out.  The  times 
had  not  yet  come  for  so  radical  a  change  in  church  gov- 
ernment. The  people,  just  freed  from  Catholicism,  had 
not  yet  been  educated  up  to  the  point  of  managing  the 

*  Where  Lambert  received  these  advanced  ideas  of  church 
government,  is  a  question.  Some,  as  Rischl,  hold  that  he  re- 
ceived the  ideas  of  it  from  his  own  order  of  monks.  Others,  as 
Goebel,  that  he  had  been  acquainted  with  the  Waldensians  and 
received  them  from  them.  Ebrard  suggests  that  he  must  have 
received  thena  from  the  Bohemian  brethren.  Suffice  it  to  say, 
he  found  them  in  the  Bible. — Fisher's  History  of  Reformation, 
page  493. 


62     ,       THE    REFORMED    CHURCH    OF   GERMANY. 

coDgregation  for  themselves.  It  was  found  hard  to  get 
elders  and  to  apply  this  government.  It  became  an 
ideal,  rather  than  an  actual,  church  government.  It  was 
found  necessary  to  appoint  superintendents  in  each  of 
the  Synods  to  carry  it  out.  But  the  power  of  the  su- 
perintendent did  not  come  from  the  prince,  as  in  the 
Lutheran  Church ;  but  from  the  Synod,  as  in  the  Re- 
formed. Nor  did  they  have  absolute  power  like  the 
Lutheran  superintendents,  but  were  under  the  control 
of  the  Synod.  So  its  presbyterial  form  changed  rather 
into  a  Synodical  one ;  a  government  not  by  elders,  but  by 
Synods.  Still  it  prepared  Hesse  for  its  ultimate  recep- 
tion of  Reformed  doctrine  and  Presbyterian  govern- 
ment. Lambert  himself  was  not  able  to  introduce  the 
decrees  of  the  Synod  among  the  churches,  as  he  could 
not  speak  German.  But  another  field  of  labor  opened 
up  for  him. 

One  of  the  greatest  results  of  the  Hessian  reforma- 
tion was  the  founding  of  the  new  University  at  Mar- 
burg. This  was  the  first  University  founded  without 
Papal  sanction.  Landgrave  Phillip  endowed  it  from 
the  proceeds  of  the  sale  of  the  monasteries  in  Hesse.  A 
library  had  existed  at  Marburg  before  the  founding  of 
the  University,  and  the  ^  Brethren  of  the  Common  Life' 
had  organized  a  school  as  its  forerunner.  In  this  new 
University  Lambert  was  appointed   Professor  of  The- 


LAMBERT    AND    HAMILTON.  63 

ology.  Here  he  found  a  congenial  sphere.  The  Uni- 
versity was  opened  with  great  pomp  before  a  great  crowd 
of  nobles  and  theologians,  on  May  30,  1527.  In  this 
crowd  was  a  young  nobleman  of  Scotland,  Patrick  Ham- 
ilton, only  23  years  of  age,  who  had  been  driven  out  of 
his  native  land  by  persecution  for  the  gospePs  sake.  He 
was  on  his  way  to  Wittenberg  to  study  with  Luther. 
But  the  plague  had  broken  out  at  Wittenberg,  and  the 
University  had  been  temporarily  moved  to  Jena.  So 
Hamilton  turned  aside  to  Marburg,  hoping  to  meet  there 
Tyndal,  the  translator  of  the  English  Bible,  whose  books 
were  published  at  Marburg  by  the  renowned  printer 
Hans  Luft.  Whether  Hamilton  met  Tyndal  is  not 
known  ;  but  we  know  that  he  met  Lambert,  a  man  more 
to  his  taste  than  Luther, — a  man  who,  like  himself,  was 
opposed  to  half  measures  in  religion.  Lambert  was  at 
once  struck  with  Hamilton's  knowledge  of  the  Scrip- 
tures. So  he  urged  him  to  compose  theses  on  the  evan- 
gelical faith,  and  defend  them  publicly.  This  Hamil- 
ton did,  in  the  great  hall  of  the  University,  in  a  de- 
fence remarkable  for  its  clearness  and  beauty,  in  which 
he  explained  the  gospel  with  the  philosophical  elo- 
quence of  the  Scotch.  But  Hamilton  did  not  stay  long  at 
Marburg — only  six  mouths.  He  sighed  for  his  native 
land,  and  went  back  there  to  die,  a  martyr,  for  his  faith. 
In  1527  the  first  difficulty  arose  in  Hesse  about  the 
Zwinglians.     Phillip  was  the   bitter  foe  of  Zwinglian- 


64     THE  REFORMED  CHURCH  OF  GERMANY. 

ism  and  ordered  the  Zwinglians  to  leave  his  land.  But 
gradually  the  Swiss  doctrines  began  to  make  some  im- 
pression on  him.  In  1528  Ecolampadius  and  Zwingli 
wrote  answers  to  Luther's  doctrines.  Zwingli  dedi- 
cated his  answer  the  Phillip,  and  sent  it  to  him.  Phil- 
lip began  to  understand  the  Swiss  better.  And  when 
the  Diet  of  Spire  in  1529  declared  against  the  evangeli- 
cals and  compelled  them  to  enter  their  famous  protest, 
the  Protestants  were  compelled  to  draw  closer  together 
in  spite  of  their  doctrinal  differences.  Pious  John 
Haner,  a  preacher  of  Frankford,  suggested  at  Spire  that 
both  parties  of  Protestants  might  be  brought  closer  to- 
gether by  a  conference.  This  pleased  Landgrave  Phil- 
lip, for  he  hoped  to  get  the  support  of  the  Swiss,  so  that 
they  might  be  a  protection  against  Italy,  and  also  weaken 
the  predominance  of  the  Catholics  in  South  Germany. 
So  he  proposed  a  conference  and  invited  to  it  Zwingli 
and  Ecolampadius  of  the  Swiss,  Bucer  and  Capito  from 
Strasburg,  Luther  and  Melancthon  from  Wittenberg. 
When  Zwingli  received  the  invitation,  Capito  urged  him 
to  accept  it.  He  wrote  to  Zwingli,  that  if  Hesse  were 
brought  to  the  true  faith,  then  the  other  princes  of  Ger- 
many would  be  easily  won.  Zwingli  was  glad  to  come. 
But  he  reminded  the  Landgrave  of  the  dangers  he 
would  have  to  pass  through  in  travelling  to  Marburg. 
He  would  have  to  pass  through  some  of  the  Catholic 
cantons  of  Switzerland,  and  the  territories  of  the  Em- 


PREPARATION  FOR  THE  CONFERENCE.      65 

peror  of  Austria  and  of  the  Elector  of  Mayence,  both 
strong  Catholic  princes.  He  suggested  that  the  confer- 
ence be  held  at  some  intermediate  place  between  Zurich 
and  Wittenberg,  as  Strasburg.  The  Landgrave  replied 
that  he  did  not  conceal  the  dangers  of  the  journey,  but 
to  obviate  them  in  part,  he  promised  an  escort  from 
Strasburg  to  Hesse  (thus  protecting  Zwingli  from  the 
Elector  of  Mayence),  and  for  the  rest,  the  protection  of 
God.  Zwingli  finally  consented,  although  the  city  coun- 
cil of  Zurich  considered  the  dangers  so  great  that  they 
refused  to  let  him  go.  If  Luther  had  had  one-tenth  of 
the  difficulties  to  encounter  that  Zwingli  had,  he  never 
would  have  come  to  this  conference. 

Luther  and  Melancthon  received  the  same  invita- 
tion, but  were  unwilling  to  accept  it.  Melancthon  de- 
sired to  have  a  conference  with  Ecolampadius,  but  not 
with  Zwingli ;  and  strangely  suggested  that  the  judges 
of  the  conference  should  be  Catholics,  so  that  theZwing- 
lians  could  not  boast  themselves  that  they  had  obtained 
the  victory.  He  requested  the  Elector  of  Saxony, 
that  as  the  Landgrave  Phillip  of  Hesse  already  leaned 
more  toward  Zwingli  than  was  good  for  him,  to  refuse 
to  allow  Luther  and  himself  to  go  to  this  conference. 
But  the  Elector  was  anxious  for  the  conference,  and 
said  his  theologians  must  go — only  he  desired  that  the 
conference  should  be  at  Nuremberg.  So  Luther  and 
Melancthon  prepared  to  go,  although  they  uttered  bit- 
ter complaints  to  their  friends  about  it. 


66  THE  REFORMED  CHURCH  OF  GERMANY. 

Zwingli,  without  waiting  for  the  Landgrave's  safe 
conduct,  set  out  on  the  third  of  September,  without  no- 
tifying the  city  council,  yes,  without  even  telling  his 
wife.  He  was  accompanied  by  the  Professor  of  Greek, 
Collins.  He  arrived  safely  at  Basle,  after  travelling  in- 
cognito through  the  Catholic  cantons  of  Switzerland. 
From  Basle  he  and  Ecolampadius  set  out  secretly  for 
Strasburg.  They  took  passage  in  an  armed  boat  on 
the  Rhine,  disguised  as  ordinary  merchants.  This  pre- 
caution was  necessary,  as  they  were  passing  through 
Austrian  territory.  The  boat  was  manned  by  reliable 
merchants,  who  were  to  answer  all  questions  from  the 
shore,  so  that  the  travellers  might  not  be  discovered. 
In  thirteen  hours  they  arrived  safely  at  Strasburg, 
where  they  were  gladly  received  and  greatly  honored. 
Zwingli  stayed  twelve  days  at  the  house  of  Zell,  the  ca- 
thedral preacher,  and  preached  in  Strasburg  with  great 
acceptance.  On  the  22nd  of  September,  accompanied 
by  Bucer,  Hedio,  and  a  small  escort,  Zwingli  and  Eco- 
lampadius set  out  for  Marburg.  To  do  this,  they  made 
a  wide  detour,  along  by-paths,  through  forests,  over 
mountains  and  villages,  by  secret  but  sure  paths,  so  as 
to  avoid  the  territories  of  the  Catholic  Elector  of  May- 
ence.  Much  of  this  journey  was  through  Palatinate  ter- 
ritory of  Zweibrucken.  They  travelled  past  Bitsch, 
Lichtenberg  and  Meisenheim.  On  the  borders  of 
Hesse,  on  the  Hunsruck,  they  were  met  by  an  escort  of 


REFORMERS    ARRIVE    AT    MARBURG.  67 

forty  Hessian  cavalry.  They  crossed  the  Rhine  at  the 
fortified  town  of  St.  Goar,  with  its  castle  of  Rheinfels 
overlooking  it.  Then,  by  way  of  Giessen,  they  pro- 
ceeded to  Marburg. 

Meanwhile  Luther  and  Melancthon,  with  Jonas 
and  Cruciger,  took  their  way  through  Halle,  Gotha  and 
Eisenach  to  Kreuzberg,  where  they  canae  to  the  borders 
of  Hesse.  Then  Luther  declared  he  would  go  no  far- 
ther until  the  Landgrave  had  sent  him  a  safe  conduct. 
This  want  of  confidence  on  Luther's  part  somewhat  of- 
fended the  Landgrave  and  helped  to  alienate  him  from 
Luther.  So  while  Luther  waited,  they  spent  the  night 
at  Alsfeld,  where  the  scholars  came  and,  kneeling,  sang 
hymns  before  Luther's  windows. 

Meanwhile  the  Swiss  arrived  at  Marburg  on  Mon- 
day, September  27th.  They  took  quarters  at  the  house 
on  the  east  side  of  the  Bear  Spring.*  But  the  Land- 
grave sent  word  that  they  should  come  to  the  castle. 
He  hoped  that,  if  the  leaders  became  personally  ac- 
quainted, it  would  aid  the  cause  of  unity.  Ecolampa- 
dius  preached  in  the  court  chapel  on  the  next  day  on 
the  second  Psalm.  Zwingli  preached  on  Wednesday  on 
Providence,  Hedio  on  Thursday.  During  these  days 
that  intervened  until  the  arrival  of  Luther,  Phillip  got 
into  a  very  friendly  intimacy  with  the  Swiss  reformers 
and  Bucer.    The  Thursday  morning's  sermon  had  hardly 

*It  is  said  that  Zwingli  put  up  at  the  hotel  to  the  Bear,  fifty- 
three  Barefoot-Friar  street. 


be  THE   REFORMED   CHURCH   OF   GERMANY. 

been  closed,  when  the  news  came  that  Luther  was  en- 
tering the  town  by  way  of  Weidenhausen,  and  would 
stay  at  the  Bear  Hotel  on  Barefoot  Friar  street.  Bucer, 
Ecolampadius  and  Hedio  at  once  called  on  him.  The 
Landgrave  sent  word  for  him  to  come  and  stay  at  the 
castle.* 

And  now  for  the  first  time  the  great  reformers  of  the 
sixteenth  century  looked  each  other  in  the  face,  and 
shook  hands  with  each  other.  Phillip  wished  that,  be- 
fore the  public  conference  between  the  leaders  would 
take  place,  the  theologians  should  have  private  inter- 
views. So  after  early  service  on  Friday,  Luther  and 
Ecolampadius  were  taken  to  one  room,  and  Zwingli  and 
Melancthon  to  another.  Luther  and  Ecolampadius 
conferred  chiefly  on  baptism,  and  Zwingli  and  Melanc- 
thon on  the  trinity  and  the  person  of  Christ.  They 
were  in  the  heat  of  their  discussions,  when  dinner  was 
announced.  After  dinner,  Zwingli  and  Melancthon 
resumed  their  discussions.  On  Saturday,  October  2nd, 
the  public  conference  was  begun  in  the  presence  of  about 
sixty  persons.f     This  castle  was  beautifully  situated  for 

••'A  tradition  says,  that  as  Luther  climbed  the  steps  of  the 
castle,  at  each  step  he  called  out,  "Hoc  est,"  "hoc  est." — "This 
is  my  bodj^,"  so  as  to  hold  himself  true  to  his  doctrine  of  the 
Lord's  supper. 

fA  tradition  has  it,  that  this  conference  was  held  in  the  beau- 
tiful large  Knights  Hall,  which  is  now  filled  with  a  choice  col- 
lection of  autographs.  But  more  probably  this  conference  took 
place  in  the  east  m  ing  of  the  castle,  where  the  Landgrave  lived. 
It  took  place  in  a  room  right  opposite  the  sleeping  apartments 
of  the  Landgrave. 


THE   CONFERENCE   AT    MARBURG.  69 

holding  such  a  conference  as  this.  It  is  placed  on  a 
hill  overlooking  the  town  and  the  beautiful  valley  of 
the  Lahn,  while  around  it  are  mountains  encircling  it 
with  beauty.  The  town  at  that  time  was  filled  with 
visitors  ;  for  the  eyes  of  the  world  were  fixed  on  this  lit- 
tle German  town.  At  this  conference  the  four  reform- 
ers sat  at  a  table.  Behind  them  sat  the  Landgrave  of 
Hesse,  Duke  Ulric  of  Wurtemberg,  the  council  and 
nobles  of  Hesse,  the  Professors  of  theology,  Lam- 
bert of  Avignon  among  them.  Chancellor  Feige  opened 
the  conference  at  6  A.  M.  in  an  address  on  the  necessity 
of  union  among  Protestants.  Luther,  to  strengthen 
himself,  wrote  with  a  piece  of  chalk  on  the  velvet  of  the 
table  before  him,  ^^Hoc  est  cor-pus  meum^^  ("this  is  my 
body").  He  carried  on  the  controversy  for  the  Lu- 
therans. Very  seldom  did  Melancthon  and  Brenz 
make  any  remark.  For  the  Swiss,  Zwingli  and  Eco- 
lampadius  both  took  part.  After  a  preliminary  confer- 
ence on  the  nature  of  Christ,  original  sin,  justification, 
&c.,  in  which  the  Lutherans  had  suspected  the  Swiss  of 
heterodoxy,  they  came  to  the  main  discussion  on  the 
Lord's  supper.  We  have  not  time  to  enter  into  this 
conference  in  detail,  but  only  in  outline.*  Luther 
pointed  to  the  words  written  before  him  as  an  irrefuta- 
ble argument  for  the  bodily  presence  of  Christ   in  the 

*It  is  found  in  full,  in  D'Aubigne's  history  of  Reformation, 
Vol.  IV.,  page  eighty-nine ;  in  Ebrard's  history,  page  eighty- 
one  ;  in  Hagenbach's  Reformation,  and  other  works. 


70  THE   REFORMED   CHURCH    OF   GERMANY. 

Lord's  supper.*  When  Luther  was  urged  to  explain 
how  Christ's  body  and  blood  could  be  in  the  elements  of 
bread  and  wine,  Luther  answered  that  "if  God  were  to 
command  him  to  eat  crab-apples,  he  would  eat  them 
without  asking."  He  maintained  that  just  as  the  sword 
was  in  the  scabbard,  or  beer  in  a  tankard,  so  Christ's 
body  was  in  the  bread.  Zwingli  then  quoted  a  number 
of  Scripture  passages,  where  the  sign  is  described  by  the 
thing  signified.  He  made  a  decided  impression  on  the 
audience.  Lambert  sitting  among  the  Marburg  Pro- 
fessors, was  violently  agitated.  He  had  been  of  Lu- 
ther's opinion,  but  now  hesitated.  A  singular  misun- 
derstanding incensed  Luther  against  Zwingli.  Zwingli, 
in  quoting  the  sixth  chapter  of  John  to  support  his  po- 
sition, said  to  Luther,  "  That  passage  breaks  your  neck, 
Doctor."  Luther,  taking  his  words  literally,  replied 
that  they  were  in  Hesse  and  not  in  Switzerland,  and 
therefore  his  neck  was  not  in  danger.  Zwingli  hastened 
to  explain  that  he  had  merely  used  a  colloquial  and 
figurative  expression  for  a  lost  cause.  But  it  angered 
Luther  and  led  to  the  breaking  up  of  the  discussion.  The 
conference  continued  Saturday   and    Sunday.      Luther 

*It  is  an  interesting  fact,  that  Christ  never  used  that  word 
est  or  esti,  about  which  there  has  been  so  much  controversy. 
Jesus  spoke  the  Aramaic  language,  and  its  construction  would 
omit  that  word.  So  there  was  much  quarrel  about  nothing  after 
all.  And  yet  while  the  discussion  about  a  word  was  useless, 
the  discussion  of  the  doctrine  revealed  a  marked  difference  be- 
tween Luther  and  Zwingli. 


EFFORTS    FOR   UNION.  71 

preached  on  Sunday  morning  in  the  castle  chapel  on  the 
gospel  for  the  day,  'forgiveness  for  sin/ 

This  conference  was  hastened  to  a  close  by  the  sud- 
den appearance  of  the  English  plague  in  Marburg. 
Landgrave  Phillip  was  intensely  earnest  that  some  union 
should  be  acknowledged  between  the  reformers.  He 
brought  them  together  to  a  final  conference.  Zwingli 
was  willing  for  a  union.  "There  is  no  one  on  earth 
with  whom  I  would  more  desire  to  be  united  than  with 
you,"  said  Zwingli  as  he  approached  Luther.  "Ac- 
knowledge them  as  brethren,"  said  Phillip  to  the  Lu- 
therans. Every  heart  was  touched.  The  two  great 
Churches  of  the  reformation  were  about  uniting.  Zwingli 
bursting  into  tears,  approached  Luther  and  held  out  his 
hand.  But  no.  Luther  refused  his  proffered  hand, 
saying  to  him  :  ''You  have  a  different  spirit  from  ours." 
After  continued  solicitations  the  Lutherans  only  replied 
to  them  :  "You  do  not  belong  to  the  communion  of  the 
Christian  Church.  We  cannot  acknowledge  you  as 
brethren."  The  Landgrave  then  again  urged  unity  on 
them.  "  We  must  let  the  Christian  world  know  that, 
except  on  the  manner  of  the  presence  of  the  body  and 
blood  in  the  Eucharist,  you  are  agreed  on  all  the  articles 
of  faith,"  he  said.  This  was  decided.  And  Luther 
drew  up  the  '  Marburg  articles  of  faith.'  The  Luther- 
ans were  surprised  that  the  Swiss  agreed  with  them  on 
so  many  points.     Luther  kept  the  article  on   the  sacra- 


72  THE    REFORMED    CHURCH    OF    GERMANY. 

ment  until  last.  On  this  they  could  not  agree ;  but 
finally  they  came  to  a  compromise.*  These  articles 
were  signed,  on  October  4th,  by  Ecolampadius,  Zwingli, 
Bucer  and  Hedio  for  the  Reformed,  and  by  Luther,  Me- 
lancthon,  Jonas,  Osiander,  Benz  and  Agricola  for  the  Lu- 
therans.f  Thus  the  Swiss  conceded  the  presence  of  Christ's 
body  and  blood  in  the  sacrament,  but  not  his  physical 
presence  in  the  bread  and  wine.  These  fifteen  Marburg 
Articles  were  the  first  Protestant  creed  of  Germany. 
They  were  the  first  bulwark  erected  against  Catholicism. 
Though  subsequently  changed  in  the  interest  of  Lu- 
theranisra  at  Schwalbach,  they  became  the  basis  of  the 
Augsburg  Confession,  which  was  submitted  to  the  Em- 
peror the  next  year. 

This  conference  of  Marburg  had  a  marked  influence 
in  many  directions.  It  affected  both  Luther  and  Zwingli. 
Zwingli  did  not  hold  as  offensive  views  as  Luther  thought. 
Zwingli  found  Luther's  doctrine  not  as  gross  as  he  sup- 

*They  agreed  :  First,  that  the  Lord's  supper  must  be  received 
in  both  kinds;  second,  that  the  sacrifice  of  the  mass  is  inad- 
missable  ;  third,  that  the  sacrament  of  the  allar  is  the  sacrament 
of  the  body  and  blood  of  Christ ;  although  we  are  not  at  this  time 
agreed  as  to  whether  the  true  body  and  blood  of  Christ  are 
physically  present  in  the  bread  and  wine;  and  recommend 
that  each  party  manifest  a  Christian  love  to  the  other  to  the  ex- 
tent that  the  conscience  of  every  man  shall  permit,  and  that 
both  parties  entreat  God  Almighty  to  confirm  us  by  his  Spirit 
in  the  right  doctrine. 

fOne  of  the  two  copies  made  at  that  time  is  now,  by  a  happy 
coincidence,  in  the  Knight's  room  of  this  castle  of  Marburg  in 
the  collection  of  autographs. 


INFLUENCE  OF  THE  CONFERENCE.        73 

posed.  The  conference  influenced  even  the  Catholics  ; 
for  it  revealed  that  the  Reformed  and  Lutherans  were 
united  on  all  points,  except  the  Lord's  sapper.  It  had 
a  marked  influence  in  Germany.  It  introduced  and  ex- 
plained Zwinglianism  to  the  Germans.  They  now  knew 
what  Zwinglianism  meant.  The  influence  of  this  con- 
ference was  felt  in  Germany  even  a  half  a  century  later, 
when  the  Reformed  Church  was  introduced.  It  had 
prepared  the  way  for  its  introduction.  And  its  influ- 
ence was  not  only  general,  but  particular,  on  individu- 
als. Lambert  says  he  went  into  that  conference  with 
his  soul  like  a  sheet  of  white  paper,  on  which  he  wanted 
the  finger  of  God  to  write  the  truth.  God  wrote  the 
truth  of  Zwinglianism  on  his  heart.  But  he  died  soon 
after,  April,  1530,  at  Frankenberg  on  the  Eder,  to 
which  place  the  University  had  been  removed  on  ac- 
count of  the  plague.*  Zwingli's  doctrines  began  to  be 
propagated  in  many  parts  of  Germany.  Loflards,  rector 
of  the  St.  Martins  school  at  Brunswick,  and  Melander 
and  Ibach  at  Frankford  accepted  them.  In  Nurem- 
berg, Durer,  the  famous  painter,  became  a  Zwinglian. 
Augsburg  was  divided  between  Luther  and  Zwingli. 
Even  in  Wittenberg  Zwingli  had  his  disciples. 

But  the  most  marked  influence  of  this  conference 
was  on  the  Landgrave  Phillip.     This  conference  almost 

•*'*  His  tomb  is  in  the  Micliael's  chapel,  lying  over  against  the 
St.  Elizabeth  Church." 


74     THE  REFORMED  CHURCH  OF  GERMANY. 

made  Phillip  a  Zwinglian.  He  renounced  the  Lutheran 
doctrine  of  oral  manducation,  or  the  receiving  Christ's 
body  and  blood  through  the  mouth.  His  counsellor, 
Feige,  became  a  Zwinglian.  Phillip  tried  to  form  a 
political  alliance  with  the  Swiss,  Wurtemberg  and  Stras- 
burg.  He  opened  a  correspondence  with  Zwingli,  which 
continued  until  Zwingli  died.  Had  Zwingli  not  died 
so  soon,  and  his  influence  been  continued  on  Phillip, 
Hesse  might  have  been  the  first  land  in  Germany  to  re- 
ceive the  Reformed  faith.  Says  a  writer:  "Nothing 
kept  Phillip  from  avowing  himself  a  Zwinglian  but  po- 
litical scruples.''  Luther  did  all  in  his  power  to  keep 
him  from  doing  so. 

This  conference,  in  affecting  Phillip,  affected  the 
Hessian  Church.  Although  the  Marburg  Articles  were 
never  officially  adopted  by  the  General  Synod  of  Hesse, 
yet  they  brought  about  a  revolution  in  the  Church.  The 
persecution  of  Zwinglians  ceased,  and  the  Zwinglians, 
who  had  been  driven  out  of  the  country,  were  brought 
back.  Preaching  against  the  Zwinglians  was  stopped. 
Melander,  called  from  Frankford  to  Cassel,  succeeded 
in  getting  the  pictures  put  out  of  the  Cassel  churches. 
This  example  was  followed  in  many  of  the  Hessian 
churches. 

At  the  Diet  of  Augsburg,  in  1530,  Landgrave  Phil- 
lip was  awkwardly  placed.  He  was  the  only  German 
prince  who  favored  the  adoption  of  a  confession  that 
Bucer  and  the  Swiss  could  sign.     When  Melancthon 


Phillip's  inclination  to  the  reformed.     75 

wrote  the  Augsburg  Confession,  which  excluded  the 
the  Swiss,  at  first  he  did  not  want  to  sign  it.  He 
wanted  it  changed  before  he  signed  it.  He  only  signed 
after  the  earnest  solicitation  of  Luther.  But  through 
his  influence  Zwinglianism  was  not  named  in  the  Con- 
fession as  a  heresy.* 

It  is  strange  to  note  that  afterward,  in  1540,  when 
Melancthon  changed  the  Augsburg  Confession,  he 
made  the  very  changes  that  Phillip  had  then  suggested 
at  the  Diet  of  Augsburg.  Finally,  after  having  entered 
his  protest,  Phillip  signed  the  Confession.  Afterward, 
at  the  conference  at  Frankford,  in  1557,  he  declared  he 
was  not  so  bound  to  the  Augsburg  Confession  that  he 
did  not  think  a  better  one  could  be  made.  The  Augs- 
burg Confession  was  not  officially  adopted  by  the  Hes- 
sian Church,  yet  it  affected  that  Church  ;  especially  after 
Hesse  joined  the  Smalcald  League,  whose  creed  was  the 
Augsburg  Confession.  Still  Phillip  kept  on  introduc- 
ing what  were  really  Reformed  customs;  for  in  1531 
he  divided  Hesse  into  six  Synods,  or  as  they  were  then 
called.  Dioceses.  In  1533  an  earnest  effort  was  made  to 
introduce  church  discipline  into  the  Church.  When  the 
Wittenberg  Concord  appeared  in  1536,  Philip  was  filled 
with  joy,  and  was  ever  most  ardently  attached  to  it,  be- 

*Melancthon  revealed  his  timidity  on  this  confession,  by 
conceding  to  the  Catholics  certain  things ;  as  episcopacy  and 
certain  ceremonies.  Phillip  wrote,  "  This  is  not  the  time  for 
weakness,  but  to  stand  by  the  truth  till  the  death." 


76  THE    REFORMED    CHURCH    OF   GERMANY. 

cause  it  brought  haraiony  between  the  Lutherans  and 
the  Reformed.  After  ZwingU's  death,  Bucer  became 
Phillip's  great  councillor  and  advisor.  He  called  Bu- 
cer ''our"  theologian.  Bucer  called  himself  'the  Land- 
grave's chaplain.'  But  when  Bucer  left  for  England, 
and  the  Augsburg  Diet  of  1555  had  made  the  Augsburg 
Confession  the  only  legal  Protestant  confession  in  Ger- 
many, Landgrave  Phillip  became  a  more  decided  Lu- 
theran ;  although  in  his  Lutheranism  he  was  always  a 
follower  of  Melancthon, — a  liberal  Lutheran.  It  is  a 
noticeable  fact,  as  Heppe  says,  that  the  Hessian  Church 
was  never  called  Lutheran  any  more  than  Zwinglian, 
except  as  a  nickname  by  the  Catholics.  Its  name  was 
'Evangelical,'  'the  Reformed'  (this  word  used  in  its  old 
broad  sense),  'the  Church  allied  to  the  Augsburg  Con- 
fession.' Those  who  entered  the  Hessian  Church  were 
never  required  to  subscribe  the  Augsburg  Confession, 
but  only  the  three  ancient  creeds  of  the  Church — the 
Apostles',  Niceue  and  Athanasian  creeds.  Luther's 
smaller  catechism,  it  is  true,  was  used  in  the  schools,  but 
in  an  amended  form.  The  Cassel  catechism  was  pub- 
lished in  1534.  It  followed  Bucer's  views  about  the 
Lord's  supper.  Hyperius  also  wrote  a  catechism,  which 
was  Refoimed,  for  the  upper  classes  in  the  schools.  And 
although  the  Hessian  Church  was  then  really  a  Lu- 
theran Church,  Zwinglians  were  allowed  in  it.  Its  doc- 
trines were   liberal.     Reformed   ministers  were  always 


CHURCH    GOVERNMENT   AND   CUSTOMS.  77 

found  in  it.  Geldenhauer,  Gamier,  Victor,  and  espe- 
cially Hyperius,  'the  father  of  Homiletics,'  were  Re- 
formed. The  first  open  charge  against  any  one  for  be- 
ing a  Calvinist  was  made  against  Hyperius,  in  1561, 
by  the  high  Lutherans.  In  doctrine,  Hesse  was  Me- 
lancthonian.  In  church  customs  it  was  only  half  Lu- 
theran. Many  of  the  Lutheran  rites,  as  exorcism,  &c., 
were  put  away.  But  in  church  government  it  was  de- 
cidedly Reformed.  Hesse  attempted  the  presbyterial 
government.  It  had,  or  attempted  to  have,  presbyteries 
or  boards  of  elders  in  each  church.  It  had  Synods  and 
General  Synods.  But  neither  in  Synods  nor  General 
Synods  do  elders  seem  to  have  appeared.  It  is  true, 
this  presbyterial  form  of  government  was  somewhat 
modified  by  having  superintendents.  But  the  superin- 
tendent was  elected  by  the  dioceses  and  subject  to  the 
clergy.  So  that  the  government  was  presbyterial  in  the 
congregation,  and  synodical  in  the  upper  courts.  The 
pre-eminence  given  to  elders  at  this  early  stage  of  his- 
tory was  remarkable.  At  the  Lord's  supper  they  stood 
around  the  table,  and  saw  that  no  unworthy  persons 
came  to  the  table.  Here  and  there  it  was  the  custom 
that  the  cup  at  the  Lord's  supper  was  handed  around 
by  some  prominent  member  of  the  church.  At  the 
church  of  Treis  the  knight,  Hermon  Schutzbau,  handed 
the  cup.  Thus  in  the  simplicity  of  its  customs,  the 
Hessian  Church  was  tending  toward  the  Reformed  faith. 


78  THE   REFORMED    CHURCH    OF   GERMANY. 

Another  significant  sign  in  that  direction  was  the  adop- 
tion of  predestination  by  some  of  the  leading  theologians 
of  the  Hessian  Church.  They  held  to  predestination 
and  the  perseverance  of  the  saints,  long  before  these 
doctrines  became  matters  of  controversy.  When  in  1561 
Zanchius  was  attacked  at  Strasburg  by  the  Lutherans 
for  holding  the  doctrine  of  predestination,  he  appealed 
to  the  theologians  of  Marburg,  and  they  endorsed  his 
position. 

And  yet  while  the  Hessian  Church  was  thus  insen- 
sibly nearing  the  Reformed  faith,  it  is  remarkable  how 
strongly  she  opposed  the  introduction  of  the  Reformed 
faith  into  Germany  by  Elector  Frederick  III.  of  the 
Palatinate.  Phillip  took  quite  an  active  part  against 
its  introduction.  This  he  did  partly  from  political  rea- 
sons, as  he  feared  it  would  divide  Germany  and  weaken 
it  against  the  Catholics.  He  even  went  so  far  as  to  go 
(in  spite  of  his  old  age)  to  Heidelberg  to  visit  Elector 
Frederick,  and  warn  him  against  going  over  to  the  Re- 
formed faith.  But  he  failed  to  keep  Frederick  from 
doing  so.  When  the  Heidelberg  catechism  appeared, 
his  theologians  at  Marburg  gave  an  unfavorable  deliv- 
erance against  it,  upbraiding  it  with  reducing  the  ele- 
ments at  the  Lord's  supper  into  mere  signs. 

Thus  Hesse  was  insensibly  being  prepared  for  its 
ultimate  transition  to  the  Reformed  faith.  The  seed, 
planted  by  Lambert  of  Avignon  in  introducing  the  Re- 


HESSE   BECOMES    REFORMED.  79 

formed  church  government,  followed  up  by  Zwingli's 
appearance  at  the  Marburg  Conference,  carried  on  by 
Bucer's  influence,  and  insensibly  continued  by  Melanc- 
thon,  by  and  by  burst  forth  into  full  bloom,  more  than 
a  half  century  later.  Strange  to  say,  Hesse,  which  was 
almost  the  first  German  land  to  incline  toward  the  Re- 
formed faith,  was  almost  the  last  to  receive  it.  Her 
customs  remained  Lutheran,  while  her  doctrine  grad- 
ually became  Reformed.  It  remained  for  Landgrave 
Maurice  the  Learned,  with  his  clear  head  and  quick  de- 
cision, to  put  an  end  to  this  incongruity  between  doctrine 
and  custom,  and  make  Hesse  thoroughly  Reformed,  as 
he  did  in  1604-7. 


CHAPTER  I.— SECTION  lY. 

Lasco  and  his  Preparation  for  the  Reformed  Faith. 

But  from  a  third  place  there  was  an  influence  ex- 
erted on  Germany,  that  prepared  the  way  for  the  Re- 
formed Church.  East  Friesland,  in  nortliern  Germany, 
was  the  only  part  of  that  country,  where  there  existed 
real  religious  freedom.  It,  therefore,  became  an  asylum 
for  the  persecuted  of  all  religions.  Anabaptists  found  a 
home  there  as  well  as  Reformed  and  Lutherans.  Emden, 
its  capital,  became  'a  refuge  for  God's  saints.' 

Emden  was  the  first  real  Reformed  church  in  Ger- 
many. It  was  the  only  part  of  the  German  Reformed 
Church  that  did  not  come  out  of  Lutheranism.  It  came 
direct  from  Catholicism  into  the  Reformed  Church. 
The  first  preacher  of  Protestantism  happened  to  be  a 
Zwinglian.  Aportanus,  formerly  a  member  of  the 
Brethren  of  the  Common  Life  (those  Protestants  be- 
fore the  Reformation, — the  Protestant  monkhood  in  the 
Catholic  Church),  came  to  Emden  in  1 526.  He  was  made 
tutor  in  the  family  of  the  Duke,  preceptor  of  the  young 
Count  Edzard,  and  subsequently  pastor  of  the  church 
at  Emden.  At  first  he  was  driven  out  of  the  church 
for  preaching  evangelical  doctrines.      But   the    people 


PREPARATION    OF    FRIESLAND.  81 

adhered  to  him,  although  the  priests  persecuted  hira. 
And  he  preached  the  gospel  in  the  open  air  to  the  gath- 
ering crowds.  Aportanus  created  a  great  sensation  in 
Germany,  by  introducing  the  simple  rites  of  the  Re- 
formed Church.  At  the  Lord^s  supper  he  used  merely 
a  common  table  instead  of  an  altar;  and  common  white 
bread  instead  of  wafers.  And  he  did  not  lay  the  bread 
on  the  mouths  of  the  communicants,  as  the  Catholics 
had  done ;  but  he  broke  it,  and  gave  it  to  them  in  their 
hands.  This  style  of  service,  unheard  of  before  in  Ger- 
many, created  a  great  stir.  This  tendency  toward  the 
Scriptural  rites  of  the  Reformed  faith,  was  aided  by  the 
coming  or  Carlstadt,  who  has  been  called,  by  some,  the 
forerunner  of  Calvinism  in  Germany.  He  came  to 
Emden  about  1529,  and  for  a  while  exerted  a  great  in- 
fluence on  the  Frisian  Church.  Thus  East  Friesland 
was  the  only  place  in  Germany,  where  the  Zwinglian  or 
Reformed  doctrine  and  mode  of  worship,  was  openly  per- 
mitted at  that  time.  In  1535,  the  neighboring  Bruns- 
wick-Luneberg  pastors  made  an  effort  to  introduce  the 
Lutheran  doctrines  into  Friesland.  But  they  were  'bit- 
terly opposed.  Then  came  the  Wittenberg  Concord  in 
1536,  which  brought  peace  between  the  Reformed  and 
Lutherans.  Still  there  were  now  two  parties  found  in 
the  Frisian  Church.  The  eastern  half  of  Friesland, 
which  appertained  to  Bremen,  was  more  influenced  by 
Lutheranism  ;  while  the  western  part,  in  close   contact 


82  THE   REFORMED   CHURCH    OF   GERMANY. 

with  Reformed  Holland,  was  more  iaclined  toward  the 
Reformed  faith.  The  Anabaptists  had  also  found  a 
refuge  in  Friesland,  and  they  were  bitter  against  the 
Lutherans  for  their  cannibalism,  as  they  called  it,  at 
the  Lord's  supper,  in  eating  the  body  of  Christ.  And 
they  were  bitter  against  both  Reformed  and  Lutherans, 
for  their  want  of  church  discipline.  So  Friesland  be- 
came a  battle  ground  between  the  Reformed,  Lutherans, 
Anabaptists  and  Catholics.  This  was  the  condition  of 
things,  when  the  Countess  of  Oldenberg,  a  pious  but 
weak  woman,  called  John  A.  Lasco  to  organize  the 
Church  in  Friesland. 

This  distinguished  reformer  was  one  of  the  most  re- 
markable characters  of  the  sixteenth  century.  It  is  a 
significant  fact  that  here  and  there  we  find  noblemen 
like  Patrick  Hamilton  and  John  A.  Lasco,  who  became 
preachers  of  the  gospel,  "esteeming  the  reproach  of 
Christ  greater  riches  than  the  treasures  of  Egypt,  for 
they  had  respect  to  the  recompense  of  the  reward." 

John  A.  Lasco  was  born  at  Lask,  his  ancestral  cas- 
tle in  Poland,  in  1499.  His  uncle,  who  was  the  Arch- 
bishop of  Gnesen,  the  capital  of  Poland,  was  also  primate 
of  the  Polish  realm.  His  uncle  occupied,  therefore,  a 
position  next  to  the  king  himself;  and  if  the  king  died, 
he  presided  over  the  government  until  a  new  king  was 
chosen.  Lasco  studied  for  a  while  at  Cracow,  living 
there  in  the  splendid  palace  of  his  uncle.     He  went  with 


LASCO'S    TRAVELS.  83 

his  uucle  to  Rome  to  the  Lateran  council  in  1513,  and 
then  studied  at  the  University  of  Bologna,  but  returned 
to  Poland  in  1518.  He  rapidly  rose  in  honor,  being 
made  canon  of  the  Church,  and  also  dean  of  the  Metro- 
politan church  at  Gnesen.  Lasco  took  a  second  trip 
abroad  in  1523.  He  went  to  Basle,  where  he  met  Farel, 
the  fiery  reformer  of  Switzerland  ;  then  to  Paris,  then 
back  to  Basle,  where  he  met  Erasmus.  Erasmus  was 
captivated  by  his  learning,  amiability  and  purity.  He 
calls  him  "a  soul  without  a  stain,"  a  very  Nathaniel. 
Lasco  became  an  ardent  adherent  of  the  humanism  of 
Erasmus,  and  spent  his  time  in  liberal  studies.  These 
began  to  lead  him  away  from  the  influence  of  Rome. 
In  passing  through  Zurich  on  his  way  to  France,  he 
met  Zwingli ;  and  from  him  received  the  first  impulse 
toward  reading  the  Bible.  Thirty  years  afterward  he 
bore  testimony  to  Zwingli's  influence  in  this  direction. 
At  Basle  he  also  met  Ecolampadius  and  Bullinger.  He 
returned  home  by  way  of  Italy,  a  humanist  or  follower 
of  Erasmus,  but  a  humanist  within  the  Catholic  Church. 
When  he  returned  in  1526,  he  found  that  strange  ru- 
mors had  been  circulated  about  him.  He  had  been  liv- 
ing with  Erasmus,  who  was  looked  upon  by  many  as  a 
half  heretic.  To  purge  himself  of  these  suspicions, 
Lasco  was  required  to  take  an  oath  of  purgation.*    Lasco 

*This  document  is  still  preserved  in  the  privy  record-  office 
at  Konigsberg. 


84  THE    REFORMED   CHURCH   OF   GERMANY. 

was  appointed  administrator  of  Gnesen.  But  his  uncle 
died  in  1531.  He  was  thus  deprived  of  his  strongest 
support  in  ascending  the  ladder  of  ecclesiastical  promo- 
tion. Still  he  continued  to  rise  for  seven  years  after  the 
death  of  his  uncle.  He  was  made  archdeacon  of  War- 
saw. This  was  the  last  honor  Rome  placed  on  his  head. 
The  king  offered  him  the  bishopric  of  Cujavia.  But 
Lasco  declined  it.  He  gave  up  all  his  honors.  He  had 
hoped  to  see  the  Catholic  Church  reformed.  His  hopes 
were  blighted.  So  he  threw  up  all  his  positions  and 
prepared  to  leave  Poland.  He  hoped  that  the  time 
might  come  (as  it  afterward  did)  when  he  could  preach 
the  gospel  to  his  own  land.  Whither  he  was  going,  he 
knew  not.  His  motto  was,  '4he  righteous  have  here 
no  fatherland,  therefore  they  seek  an  heavenly." 

"  To  me  remained  no  place  nor  home, 
My  country  is  in  every  clime  ; 
T  can  be  calm  and  free  from  care, 
On  any  shore,  since  God  is  there." 

For  nineteen  years  he  was  a  pilgrim,  wandering  up 
and  down  in  Europe,  establishing  the  Reformed  Church 
in  Friesland,  England  and  Germany,  before  he  returned 
to  Poland  to  preach  the  gospel.  He  went  to  Frank- 
ford,  where  he  made  the  acquaintance  of  his  friend  Har- 
denberg.  He  had  brilliant  offers  of  political  advance- 
ment from  the  Emperor  of  Germany,  and  also  from 
King  Ferdinand,  but  he  refused  them  all.  He  went  to 
Louvain,  where  he  became  intimate  with   the  Brethren 


THE    EMDEN    CHURCFI.  85 

of  the  Common  Life,  and  was  more  fully  influenced  by 
the  gospel.  Finally  he  completed  his  break  with  Rome 
by  marrying.  As  a  married  priest  would  not  be  safe 
at  Louvain,  he  sought  a  quiet  home  and  found  it  in 
East  Friesland,  where  he  arrived  in  1540.  In  1543 
he  was  urged  by  Count  Christopher  of  Oldenberg  to  ac- 
cept the  position  of  superintendent  in  Friesland.  But 
he  refused  this  first  offer,  on  account  of  his  ill  health 
and  his  ignorance  of  the  Dutch  language,  and  also  on 
account  of  his  duty  to  distant  Poland.  But  after  re- 
peated calls,  he  finally  accepted  the  position  under  the 
Duchess  of  Oldenberg.  Soon  after  he  entered  on  his 
duties  as  superintendent,  he  had  a  call  from  Duke 
Albert  of  Prussia  to  Konigsberg  to  the  University 
there.  It  was  a  great  temptation  ;  as  he  would  be  so 
near  his  beloved  Poland  and  might  influence  her  toward 
the  gospel.  But  he  finally  refused  the  offer,  as  he  found 
that  they  insisted  he  should  not  express  his  opinions  on 
the  sacraments  and  church  discipline,  on  which  doctrines 
those  Lutherans  were  suspicious  of  him.  He  soon  came 
into  collision  with  the  Franciscan  monks  of  Friesland. 
He  ordered  the  Franciscans  to  remove  the  images  from 
their  churches.  The  Franciscans  tried  to  turn  the  ta- 
bles on  him  by  saying  he  was  a  stranger  in  that  land, 
and  was  trying  to  introduce  strange  doctrines.  Lasco 
answered  them.  The  Countess  wavered  between  Lasco 
and  the  Franciscans      Then  he  boldly  urged  the  Count- 


86  THE    REFORMED    CHURCH    OF   GERMANY. 

ess  to  stand  up  for  the  truth  ;  and  she  bowed  before  the 
prayers  of  this  bold  man.  Lasco,  in  his  reforms,  aimed 
at  nothing  short  of  Zwinglian  simplicity  of  worship. 
Pictures  and  all  such  unbiblical  ceremonies  as  exorcism, 
&c.,  were  put  out  of  the  churches.  He  desired  bread 
to  be  used  at  the  communion  ;  and  if  the  wine  gave  out, 
he  said  another  liquid  could  be  used,  provided  the 
meal  was  still  made  a  memorial  of  Christ.  He  was  very 
much  opposed  to  the  kneeling  position  at  the  Lord^s 
supper,  because  it  seemed  to  him  like  a  worship  of  the 
bread  and  wine.  He  allowed  the  communicants  while 
standing  to  receive  the  elements,  but  afterwards  in 
London  he  required  them  to  receive  them  while  sitting. 
Lasco  was  a  Zwinglian  in  doctrine,  a  Calvinist  in  church 
government.  He  attempted  a  splendid  organization  of 
the  Church.  In  the  summer  of  1544  he  had  an  church 
order  adopted,  which  required  the  ministers  of  the  prin- 
cipal church  of  Emden  to  appoint  four  pious  men,  who 
should  watch  over  the  morals  of  the  congregation.  They 
were  really  elders.  He  also  organized  the  Coetus  in 
1544.  It  was  a  minister's  Monday  meeting,  for  it  met 
on  Monday.  It  also  had  a  synodical  authority.  During 
the  summer  all  the  ministers,  200  in  number,  met  each 
week.  This  Coetus  elected  a  president  and  secretary 
for  the  whole  summer.  Its  order  of  business  was  prayer 
by  the  president,  inquiry  into  the  doctrines  and  morals 
of  each  minister  in  rotation.      Then    members   of  the 


THE   COETUS   OF    EMPEN.  87 

congregations,  who  had  complaints  against, any  of  the 
ministers,  brought  them  before  the  Coetus.  The  Coetus 
then  proceeded  to  examine  candidates  for  the  ministry 
by  inquiring  into  their  lives,  and  listening  to  a  brief 
conference  sermon  by  them.  Then  followed  a  discus- 
sion of  doctrine,  especially  on  the  controversies  of  the 
day.  Two  ministers  were  appointed  to  discuss  the  topic 
appointed,  their  theses  being  made  known  eight  days 
before ;  so  that  every  one  came  to  the  Coetus  prepared. 
This  Coetus  was  a  blessing  to  the  land.  The  French 
minister  at  Emden,  Fremaut,  said  he  learned  more  at 
it,  than  he  had  done  at  the  university.  This  model 
synod  exercised  a  benign  influence  on  the  clergy ;  and 
on  the  laity,  too,  who  saw  their  pastors,  as  well  as  them- 
selves, subjected  to  church  discipline.  This  Coetus  con- 
tinued forty  years,  until  the  reign  of  Duke  Edzard,  who 
was  inclined  to  Lutheranism.  He  suppressed  it  in 
1583.  It  was  reorganized  afterward  and  (according  to 
Goebel  and  Barteis)  still  exists.  In  1543  Lasco,  with 
Bucer,  aided  Elector  Herman  of  Cologne  to  introduce 
Protestantism  into  his  county  of  Wied,  on  the  east  side 
of  the  Rhine,  opposite  Coblentz.  Lasco  also  visited 
West  Friesland  in  Holland.  In  1544  he  published  an 
epitome  of  doctrine  for  the  churches  of  East  Friesland. 
In  it  he  reveals  his  predestination,  "  that  the  eternal 
council  of  God  controls  all  things,  that  Christ  is  the 
central  point  of  Christianity  ;  but  God  shuts  out  no  one 


88  THE    REFORMED    CHURCH    OF   GERMANY. 

from  his  mercy.  Christ  by  his  death  expiated  the  sins 
of  the  whole  world.''  He  was,  therefore,  a  predestina- 
rian,  but  held  to  the  doctrine  of  the  universal  atonement 
along  with  it.  Lasco  also  so  influenced  the  Countess, 
that  she  issued  school  regulations,  which  reveal  one  of 
the  first  instances  of  compulsory  school  attendance.  He 
arranged  a  catechism  in  1546  for  Sabbath  afternoon 
preaching.  It  was  written  in  manuscript  and  passed 
around  among  the  clergy.  It  divided  itself  into  four 
parts,  the  commandments,  faith,  prayer,  sacraments.  It 
was  unlike  Calvin's  catechism,  which  divided  itself 
into  five  parts ;  placing  the  scripture  between  prayer 
and  the  sacraments.  Lasco's  catechism  was  a  very 
lengthy  one,  and  was  afterwards  shortened  by  him  in 
his  London  and  Emden  catechisms.  Thus,  by  Lasco's 
exertions,  Emden  and  East  Friesland  became  the  model 
for  the  Dutch  and  German  Reformed  Churches ;  as 
Geneva  had  been  for  the  French,  English  and  Scotch 
Churches.  But  the  controversies  about  the  sacraments 
broke  out  again  just  before  Luther's  death.  And  the 
Lutherans  in  East  Friesland,  five  or  six  in  number,  with 
Lemsius  of  Norden  at  their  .  head,  banded  together 
against  Lasco  At  first,  they  would  not  attend  the 
Coetus.  They  said  they  were  opposed  to  this  presby- 
terial  order,  because  it  savored  of  the  Reformed  Church. 
The  Countess  ordered  them  to  attend.  They  refused  to 
obey.     They   knew  that  they    had    influential   sympa- 


LASCO   GOES   TO    ENGLAND.  89 

thizers  in  some  of  the  courtiers  of  the  Countess,  who 
were  dissatisfied  with  the  strict  church  discipline  of 
Lasco.  So  finally,  after  waiting  for  months  and  seeing 
among  the  pastors  neither  unity  of  doctrine  nor  strictness 
of  discipline,  Lasco  resigned  his  position  as  superintendent 
in  1546,  asking  to  be  allowed  to  remain  simply  as  pastor 
of  the  great  church  at  Emden.* 

But  while  Lasco  was  retiring  from  public  life,  a  call 
came  to  him  from  England.  Peter  Martyr  and  also 
William  Turner,  an  Englishman,  who  had  been  a 
refugee  at  Emden,  recommended  him  to  King  Edward 
VI.  of  England.  This  young  king  was  looked  upon  as 
the  ^Josiah'  of  the  sixteenth  century,  who  would  thor- 
oughly reform  his  land.  He  called  to  his  help  quite  a 
number  of  Protestant  foreigners,  as  Bucer,  Peter  Martyr 
and  others.  Lasco  was  granted  a  leave  of  absence  by 
the  Duchess,  in  order  to  go  to  England.  He  travelled 
through  Holland,  Brussels  and  Flanders,  in  disguise, 
(as  the  imperial  officers  were  on  the  watch  for  prominent 
Protestants),  until  he  arrived  at  Calais,  the  first  English 
port.  He  spent  the  winter  at  Lambeth  with  the  Arch- 
bishop of  Canterbury,  Cranmer,  aiding  him  by  his  advice 

*Lasco,  during  his  stay  at  Emden,  had  resided  in  the  Fran- 
ciscan cloister,  whose  solid  walls  protected  him  against  the  se- 
vere blasts  of  that  northern  climate.  But  now,  seeing  his  op- 
ponents wanted  to  drive  him  from  his  position,  he  bought,  on 
the  road  from  Emden  to  Aurich,  close  to  Loppersum,  a  plain 
simple  country  house  in  the  farmstead  of  Abbiugwehr. 


90  THE    REFORMED   CHURCH    OF    GERMANY. 

in  ecclesiastical  affairs.     Afterward  he  went  back  to  Era- 
den,  his  leave  of  absence  having  expired.     When  he  ar- 
rived at  Eraden,  he  found  that  the  Emperor  of  Germany 
was  trying  to  introduce  the  offensive  Romish  rites  of  the 
Augsburg  Interim  into  every  part  of  Germany.     The 
Countess  of  Oldeuberg  was  in  great  anxiety.     The  peo- 
ple felt  their  danger.     Lasco  tried  to  stem  the  tide,  by 
using  his  influence  against  the  introduction  of  the  In- 
terim.    He  also  went  to  Dantzic  and  Konigsberg  to  in-  * 
fluence  the  Duke  of  Prussia  against  it :  as  well  as  to  get 
near  to  his  beloved  Poland ;  and  from  her,  secure  per- 
mission to  go  to  England  a  second  time.     He  came  back 
to  Emden  in  August,   1649.      He  found  the  Countess 
about  receiving  the  Interim.      Some  of  her  counsellors 
drew  up  what  was  called  the  Emden  Interim,  consisting 
of  garbled  extracts  from  the  Augsburg  Interim  and  the 
Brunswick-Luneburg  church  regulations.     The  Emden 
ministers  refused  to  assent  to  this  Emden  Interim.    Only 
Lemsius  at  Norden  and  the  Lutheran  pastors  received 
it.      The    people   at   Emden   supported    their   fiiithful 
pastors.     As  a  result  the  church  doors  were  closed  against 
pastors  and  people,  because  they  would  not  receive  the 
Interim.     So  the  people  worshipped  in  the  graveyards, 
which  were  thronged  by  greater  crowds  than  ever  at- 
tended church.     "Here,"  says  Dalton,  "in  the  midst  of 
the  graves  of  the  departed,  the  children   were  baptized, 


LASCO    LEAVES    EMDEN.  91 

the  affianced  couples  united  in  wedlock."  The  Coetus 
also  met  weekly,  when  Lasco  tried  to  strengthen  the 
brethren  against  the  Interim.  But  the  imperial  court 
determined  to  get  rid  of  Lasco.  So  an  accusation  of 
treason  was  whispered  against  him,  because  he  had  lately 
been  to  England,  and  also  in  the  neighborhood  of  Poland. 
Lasco  then,  in  October,  1549,  bade  farewell  to  Emden 
amid  the  tears  of  the  people.  The  Countess,  though 
letting  him  go,  bore  witness  to  his  faithfulness.  He 
went  to  Bremen,  where  he  received  the  Lord's  supper 
from  Timan,  the  intense  Lutheran  and  the  future  foe  of 
his  friend  Hardenberg.  In  April,  1550,  he  was  at 
Hamburg  with  his  friends,  where  he  mingled  freely  with 
Westphal,  who  afterwards  thundered  denunciations 
against  him  for  being  a  Calvinist,  charging  him  with 
heresy.  Finally,  after  a  terrible  voyage,  in  which  the 
ship  put  back  three  times  to  Hamburg,  and  his  discom- 
fort was  increased  by  an  attack  of  his  old  disease,  ague, 
he  arrived  at  Lambeth.  He  was  made  pastor  of  the 
foreign  Reformed  congregation  in  London,  which  con- 
sisted of  the  French,  Dutch,  German  and  Italian  refugees, 
who  had  fled  from  the  continent  to  find  an  asylum  in 
England.  In  1548  the  Dutch  and  French  had  begun 
private  worship  in  a  house;  but  in  1550  the  church  of 
St.  Augustine  (at  present  called  the  church  of  Austin 
Friars)  was  given  to  them.     They  were  organized  under 


92  THE    REFORMED    CHURCH    OF    GERMANY. 

four  pastors,  and  numbered  three  or  four  thousand  souls. 
This  church  was  permitted,  by  a  patent  from  the  king, 
to  be  free  from  the  ecclesiastical  jurisdiction  of  the  bishop 
of  London  and  was  allowed  to  organize  herself.  This 
gave  an 'opportunity  to  Lasco  to  develope  his  talent  for 
organization.  And  the  result  was  a  finely  organized 
spiritually-minded  church.  He  put  away  many  of  the 
semi-papal  ceremonies  that  still  lingered  among  the 
Protestants  of  England,  and  w^ere  favored  by  Cranmer, 
the  archbishop  of  Canterbury.  He  put  away  pictures, 
candles,  altars,  bells,  organs,  and  kneeling  at  the  com- 
munion, which  he  considered  half  idolatry  of  the  sacra- 
ment. He  introduced  the  sitting  posture  at  the  com- 
munion, and  had  the  communicants  seated  around  a 
table.  But  when  in  other  churches,  he  communed  with 
them  after  their  own  fashion.  Cranmer  wanted  the 
ministers  to  wear  the  priestly  vestments  or  robes  during 
service,  but  Lasco  desired  no  special  fashion  of  clothing 
for  the  ministry.*  His  sad  experience  under  the  Interim 
in  Germany  had  sharpened  his  opposition  to  all  these 
so-called  adiaphora  or  semi-papal  customs.  The  early 
refugees  at  London  had  brought  with  them  their  own 
liturgies  and  catechisms  from  the  continent.  The  French 
used  Calvin's  catechism  and  the  Genevan  liturgy,  and 
sang  Marot's  Psalms.  The  Dutch  leaned  more  to  the 
Emden  catechism  and  the  Zurich  church   order.     From 

*Bartels,  page  35. 


93 


these  Lasco  drew  up  a  new  one,  which  was  very  remark- 
able as  the  first  introduction  of  pure  presbyterian  church 
government.  The  first  Presbyterian  church  was  a  Re- 
formed church — the  Dutch  Reformed  church  of  Lon- 
don. In  it  there  were  three  officials — elders,  deacons 
and  doctors.  The  elders  and  doctors  were  elected  for 
life,  and  the  deacons  for  a  year.  Lasco  was  the  first  to 
notice  the  two  kinds  of  elders,  teaching  and  ruling  eld- 
ers. The  duty  of  the  doctors  was  to  foster  the  study 
and  knowledge  of  the  Scriptures.  Instead  of  the  Coetus, 
as  at  Emden,  they  had  a  weekly  prayer  meeting.  The 
congregation,  after  a  day  of  prayer,  elected  its  own  offi- 
cers. It  will  be  noticed  that,  in  this  church  govern- 
ment, Lasco  differed  from  Calvin.  Lasco's  church  or- 
der was  a  development  of  the  church  orders,  which  he 
found  were  used  by  his  congregation.  But  he  improved 
on  them,  and  even  improved  on  Calvin's.  Calvin^s  was 
aristocratic  Presbyterianism  ;  Lasco's  democratic  Pres- 
byterianism.  Calvin  did  not  aim  at  a  separation  of  the 
Church  and  State.  He  wished  that  each  should  be  in- 
dependent of  the  other  in  its  sphere,  but  the  one  should 
be  a  help  to  the  other.  And  under  Calvin  the  congre- 
gation was  not  the  possessor  and  manager  of  their  own 
affairs.  They  could  not  freely  elect  their  own  officers 
without  interference  from  State  or  consistory.  Nor  did 
Calvin  concede  the  equality  of  the  elders  with  the  min- 
isters.    But  Lasco  granted  freeduni  to  the  congreg  itiun 


94     THE  REFORMED  CHURCH  OF  GERMANY. 

to  choose  its  own  officers,  and  also  equality  of  the  elders 
with  the  ministers.  Lasco,  in  addition  to  his  labors  of 
church  organization,  also  printed  a  compend  of  doctrine 
in  his  London  catechism,  which  was  an  abridgement  of 
his  Emden  catechism.  But  in  Emden  it  had  existed 
only  in  manuscript  form  ;  now  in  London  it  was  printed. 
Lasco  was  not  destined  to  remain  long  in  London, 
not  more  than  four  years,  before  he  had  to  take  up  his 
pilgrim's  staff  again  and  leave  for  other  shores.  King 
Edward  VI.  died,  and  bloody  Queen  Mary  ascended 
the  English  throne  and  reintroduced  Catholicism  by 
force  and  persecution.  Lasco  and  his  congregation  had 
to  flee.  But  whither  should  they  go  ?  They  looked 
toward  Denmark,  whose  king,  in  disposition,  was  very 
much  like  the  late  Edward  VI.  of  England  ;  and  so 
Lasco,  a  second  Ulysses,  began  his  wanderings  again. 
It  was  determined  that,  with  a  part  of  his  congregation, 
he  should  go  to  Denmark  and  arrange  for  an  asylum  for 
the  refugees ;  and  that  then  the  others  would  follow. 
So,  on  the  17th  of  September,  1553,  a  sad  sight  was 
seen  at  Gravesend,  as  the  travellers,  170  souls,  mostly 
Dutch,  set  sail  in  two  Danish  ships.  A  great  number 
of  the  men  and  women  of  Lasco's  congregation  went 
with  them  to  the  shore,  and  wept  at  their  departure. 
Those  on  shore  followed  them  with  their  eyes  as  long 
as  they  could  see  them  ;  and  when  the  English  fog  came 
in  and  hid  them  from  sight,  they  began  singing  a  psalm, 


THEY   SAIL    FOR    DENMARK.  95 

which  sounded  over  the  waves  as  their  sad  final  fare- 
well. The  refugees  expected  to  find  a  cordial  welcome 
at  Copenhagen.  Bucer  had  once  been  called  to  Copen- 
hagen, in  ]  549,  and  Sturm  had  hoped  to  get  Peter  Mar- 
tyr elected  as  Professor  at  Copenhagen.  They,  there- 
fore, supposed  that  the  Danish  court,  though  Lutheran, 
would  not  be  opposed  to  those  who  were  Reformed. 
How  bitterly  were  they  doomed  to  disappointment.  Af- 
ter a  terrible  voyage,  in  which  a  storm  separated  their 
vessels,  the  vessels  came  together  in  the  harbor  of  Elsi- 
nore  in  Denmark.  Here,  according  to  Shakespeare,  a 
ghost  appeared  to  Hamlet.  But  a  worse  ghost  appeared 
to  these  fleeing  Protestant  Reformed  people ;  a  real  one, 
as  they  landed  on  those  shores  of  Denmark.  The  ghost 
of  high  Lutheranism  appeared  with  terrible  power  and 
persecution.  While  Lasco,  with  Micronius  and  Uten- 
hoven,  sought  the  king  of  Denmark  at  his  palace  at 
Kolding  in  Jutland,  so  as  to  get  permission  for  the  refu- 
gees to  settle  in  Denmark  ;  the  rest  of  the  emigrants 
sailed  for  Copenhagen.  Lasco's  first  experience  at 
Kolding  was  not  very  propitious.  Before  he  and  his 
companions  were  allowed  to  see  the  king,  they  were 
compelled  to  listen  to  a  sermon,  on  Phil.  3  :  17,  by  court 
preacher  Noviomagus.  They  had  expected  him  to  act 
as  their  intercessor  before  the  king.  Instead  of  that,  he 
became  their  accuser.  In  this  sermon  he  called  them 
fanatics,  heretics,  sacramentarians,  liars  of  the  true  pres- 


96     THE  REFORMED  CHURCH  OF  GERMANY. 

ence,  "whose  end  is  damnation/'  Noviomagus  after- 
ward urged  the  king  to  send  them  adrift.  The  king  at 
first  received  them  kindly,  and  after  several  interviews, 
told  them  that  they  would  be  allowed  to  settle  in  his 
territories,  if  they  would  conform  to  the  Lutheran  rites 
of  the  Danish  Church.  But  the  rites  of  the  Lutheran 
Church  in  Denmark  seemed  to  them  a  reproduction  of 
the  rites  of  the  Anglican  Church  in  England,  which 
they  disliked.  Their  robes  and  altars  and  bishops  were 
just  what  these  refugees  had,  all  the  time,  been  protest- 
ing against.  They  replied  that  they  could  not  conscien- 
tiously conform  to  these  customs.  They  were,  therefore, 
ordered  to  leave  the  land.  Lasco  then  pled  that  they 
might  at  least  be  allowed  to  winter  in  Denmark,  as  the 
winter  was  severe.  But  even  this  was  refused.  The 
refugees  pled  that  no  one  would  refuse  a  Turk,  yes  a 
dog,  at  that  season.  They  pled  to  be  allowed  to  stay 
two  months  :  this  being  refused,  one  month,  then  four- 
teen days,  so  that  they  could  buy  clothes  and  the  neces- 
saries of  life,  and  then  they  would  depart.  But  this 
was  refused.  Neander  draws  a  parallel  to  this  from  the 
history  of  the  early  Christian  Church.  During  the 
Monophysite  controversy  of  the  fifth  century,  between 
Antioch  and  Alexandria,  a  number  of  Egyptian  wood- 
cutters were  compelled  to  land  at  Tyre.  But  so  great 
was  the  bitterness  between  the  schools  of  Syria  and 
Egypt,  that  they  were  forbidden  to  land,  lest  they  should 


PERSECUTIONS   BY   THE    LUTHERANS.  97 

pollute  the  land  with  heresy.  The  Lutherans  of  Den- 
mark and  North  Germany  likewise  refused  to  receive 
their  Reformed  brethren,  although  of  the  same  German 
blood  and  same  Protestant  faith.  To  make  the  condi- 
tion of  the  refugees  worse,  while  they  were  at  Copenha- 
gen waiting  for  news  from  Lasco,  the  plague  broke  out. 
This  disease  was  looked  upon  by  the  Lutherans  as  an 
affliction  of  Providence  sent  on  Copenhagen  for  harbor- 
ing such  heretics  as  the  Reformed.  But  looked  upon  as 
a  sign  of  God's  Providence,  it  pointed  the  other  way; 
for  not  one  of  the  refugees,  even  in  their  sad  condition, 
took  the  plague  !  while  the  citizens  of  Copenhagen  did. 
If  it  were  an  affliction  of  God,  it  was  an  affliction  of 
God  on  those  Lutherans  for  their  want  of  brotherly 
courtesy,  in  refusing  a  refuge  to  the  Reformed.  The 
refugees  were  compelled  to  leave  Copenhagen.  Lasco's 
two  sons  were  first  allowed  the  privilege  of  wintering  in 
Denmark.  But  afterwards,  in  the  midst  of  a  severe 
frost,  they  were  obliged  to  share  the  sad  fate  of  the  other 
refugees.  To  escape,  they,  with  their  tutor,  came  near 
losing  their  lives  in  the  ice  packs,  as  they  fled  over  the 
ice  to  the  refugees.  Out  into  an  angry  sea,  into  a  terri- 
ble winter,  those  poor  refugees  were  hurried.  As  they 
sailed,  a  terrible  storm  greeted  them,  followed  by  frost 
and  snow  storms.  They  entered  different  harbors  to  es- 
cape from  the  storms,  but  all  the  harbors  were  closed 
against  them,  because  of  the  plague  that  had  been  rag- 


98  THE   REFORMED   CHURCH   OF   GERMANY. 

ing  at  Copenhagen,  and  because  of  their  still  greater 
plague  of  Reformed  heresy.  The  three  ships  were  finally 
permitted  to  land  safely,  by  Christmas  time,  at  Rostock, 
Wismar  and  Lubeck.  Duke  John  Albert  of  Mecklen- 
berg  invited  them  to  stay  at  Wismar.  But  his  preach- 
ers soon  stirred  up  the  people  and  effected  the  recall  of 
permission  to  stay.  The  general  experience  of  the  refu- 
gees was,  that  the  magistrates  and  the  people  pitied  them 
at  first,  until  the  ministers  stirred  them  up  against  them. 
Curtius,  the  superintendent  at  Lubeck,  called  them 
heretics,  and  was  anxious  to  have  them  expelled.  At 
Hamburg,  where  they  arrived  over-land  in  March, 
1554,  they  fared  even  worse.  Westphal,  the  minister 
at  Hamburg,  had  called  them  ^  martyrs  of  the  devil  ;^  so 
the  citizens  of  Hamburg  were  forbidden,  under  heavy 
penalties,  to  take  any  of  them  into  their  houses.  Like 
hunted  game,  they  were  driven  out  into  the  neighboring 
villages.  One  of  the  villages  received  them  over  night  in 
a  shed.  They  were,  like  David,  hunted  like  a  partridge 
over  the  hills.  But  although  rejected  by  the  Danes 
and  North  Germans,  sympathy  came  to  them  from  other 
quarters.  Gustavus,  King  of  Sweden,  in  spite  of  their 
difference  of  language  and  religion,  invited  them  to  an 
asylum  in  his  land.  Finally,  by  Easter,  1554,  the  ex- 
iles reached  Emden,  whither  Lasco  had  gone  before 
them.  There  they  were  gladly  received,  the  Lutherans 
saying  not  a  word   against  them.     But  Lasco  did  not 


LASCO    AT    EMDEN.  ^\) 

remain  long  at  Emden.  The  Countess,  though  she  re- 
spected him,  yet  feared  that  his  decided  opposition  to 
altars,  organs  and  baptismal  fonts  would  make  trouble. 
The  high  Lutherans  charged  that  he  had  changed  his 
doctrines  while  he  was  in  England.  He  published  a 
catechism  in  1554,  an  abbreviation  of  the  former  Emden 
catechism.  Micronius  also  published  a  shorter  catechism 
for  those  who  expected  to  come  to  the  Lord's  supper. 
This  Emden  catechism  raised  a  storm  in  Emden,  and 
hastened  Lasco's  departure.  Melancthon  looked  on  him 
with  a  little  suspicion,  since  he  had  been  in  England, 
And  even  his  old  friend  Hardenberg  became  cool  toward 
him,  because  he  suspected  him  of  being  a  renegade  from 
Lutheranisra.  So  Lasco  left  Emden  in  April,  1555, 
and  went  to  Frankford,  where  he  was  kindly  received. 

The  scene  now  shifts  from  Emden  to  Frankford  on 
the  Main,  that  great,  wealthy  free  city  of  western  Ger- 
many. Lasco  had  become  a  leader  in  the  Netherland 
churches,  and  his  presence  introduces  us  to  the  refugee 
Reformed  churches  that  sprang  up  in  different  parts  of 
Germany,  and  which  were  an  important  factor  in  mak- 
ing Germany  Reformed.  The  history  of  these  refugee 
congregations  at  Frankford  gives  us  an  interesting 
glimpse  into  the  custom  of  those  early  Reformed  churches. 
The  refugees  from  England  and  Holland  began  to  come 
to  Frankford  in  1554.  Their  first  services  were  held  in 
private  houses.     Then  the  church  of  the  White  Lady 


100         THE    REFORMED   CHURCH   OF    GERMANY. 

was  given  them  as  their  place  of  worship.  In  the  next 
.year  the  Holland  congregation  of  London  joined  this 
French  church  ;  and  a  month  later  an  English  congre- 
gation from  London,  under  Whittingham,  arrived.  At 
first  the  Lutheran  city  churches  were  on  the  most 
friendly  terms  with  the  refugees.  As  these  foreign  con- 
gregations grew  liturgical,  differences  between  them  soon 
caused  strife.  The  English  church  asked  the  city  for 
the  use  of  another  church.  As  the  cloister  of  St.  Cath- 
arine was  occupied  by  only  one  nun  (the  rest  having 
married),  they  asked  the  magistrates  for  the  use  of  it. 
The  city  authorities  at  first  refused  to  grant  it,  but  after- 
wards conceded  to  them  the  church  of  All  Saints,  then 
unused.  The  English  congregation  was  required  not  to 
use  the  English  liturgy,  but  to  conform  to  the  French 
mode  of  worship.  So  they  agreed  to  omit  the  litany, 
the  responses,  the  surplice,  and  other  ceremonies,  "  which 
in  the  Reformed  churches  would  seem  more  than  strange, 
or  which  were  superstitious  and  superfluous.^'  They 
proceeded  to  elect  three  pastors.  One  of  them  was  John 
Knox,  whom  Calvin  urged  to  come  to  Frankford.  Knox 
came  from  Geneva  in  November,  1554.  When  Knox 
came,  he  already  found  two  parties  in  the  English 
Church.  One  party  favored  the  use  of  the  English  lit- 
urgy with  all  its  responses  and  vestments.  The  other, 
headed  by  Whittingham,  was  puritanical  and  opposed 
them.     Knox,  when  he  came,  said  he  could  not  admin- 


KNOX    AT    FRANKFORD.  101 

ister  communion  according  to  the  English  liturgy,  but 
he  offered  to  preach  for  them.  He  wrote  a  temperate 
letter  to  the  congregation  in  the  interest  of  the  Puritan 
party ;  and  a  committee  drew  up  a  shorter  form  of  ser- 
vice, modeled  after  the  Genevan  liturgy.  But  this  did 
not  give  entire  satisfaction,  so  it  was  modified  by  adapt- 
ing certain  parts  of  the  prayer  book.  This  was  trans- 
lated into  Latin  and  sent  to  Calvin,  who  replied  that  he 
could  not  but  condemn  the  policy  of  those,  who  held  to 
"the  tolerable  fooleries  of  the  English  liturgy."  This 
form  was  used  until  March,  when  Cox,  one  of  Cranmer's 
helpers  in  publishing  the  English  liturgy,  and  tutor  of 
the  late  King  Edward  of  England,  arrived.  The  first 
day  that  he  attended  church  service,  he,  and  those  with 
him,  broke  out  into  responses.  The  elders  admonished 
them,  when  they  boldly  replied,  "that  they  would  do  as 
they  had  done  in  England,  and  they  would  have  the  face 
of  an  English  church."  "  The  Lord  grant  it  to  have 
the  face  of  Christ^s  church,"  said  Knox  afterward,  "  and, 
therefore,  I  would  have  had  it  agreeable  in  outward 
rites  and  ceremonies,  with  Christian  churches  reformed." 
The  next  Sunday  one  of  Cox^s  companions  got  into  the 
pulpit  without  the  knowledge  of  the  pastors  or  congre- 
gation, and  read  the  litany.  Cox  and  his  companions 
joining  in  the  responses.  It  happened  that  it  was 
Knox's  duly  to  preach  that  Sunday  afternoon,  and  he 
severely  reprimanded  them.     A  meeting  of  the  congre- 


102         THE    REFORMED    CHURCH    OF    GERMANY. 

gation  was  held.  At  this  meeting  the  friends  of  the 
liturgy  held  that  Cox  and  his  companions  ought  to  vote. 
This  was  improper,  as  they  had  not  yet  been  received  as 
members  of  that  church.  But  Knox,  sure  of  the  truth 
of  his  cause,  and  anxious  to  remove  prejudice,  asked 
that  they  be  admitted.  This  gave  the  majority  against 
Knox.  And,  as  so  often  happens  in  such  cases,  they 
turned  against  their  opponents ;  and  Cox  discharged 
Knox  as  the  reward  for  his  kindness.  The  friends  of 
Knox  then  complained  to  the  city  authorities  that  the 
French  liturgy,  which  was  without  the  responses  of  this 
English  liturgy,  should  be  restored.  But  two  of  Cox's 
party,  in  reply,  went  to  the  city  authorities  and  accused 
Knox  of  high  treason  against  the  Emperor  of  Germany. 
They  showed  one  of  Knox's  books  entitled  "  Admoni- 
tion to  England,"  in  which  was  a  passage  addressed  to 
the  inhabitants  of  Amersham  in  Buckinghamshire,  when 
it  was  reported  that  Queen  Mary  was  to  marry  King 
Phillip  of  Spain,  the  heir  of  the  Emperor  of  Germany.* 
In  this  book  Knox  seems  to  have  compared  the  Emperor 
to  Nero,  as  an  enemy  of  Christ,  in  his  persecutions  of 
Protestants.  When  the  magistrates  of  the  town  heard 
this  accusation,  they  were  perplexed  to  know  what  to 
do  ;  for  they  were  satisfied  of  Knox's  innocence,  and  yet 
they  feared  the  Emperor's  wrath,  if  this    news   should 

*This  match  was  opposed  in  England  even  by  the  Catholics, 
and  Knox  had  written  his  protest  against  it  in  this  book. 


LASCO   AT   FRANKFORD.  103 

reach  his  ears  at  Augsburg.  So  they  sent  to  Whitting- 
hara,  and  asked  him  quietly  to  request  Knox  to  depart. 
On  the  25th  of  March,  after  a  brief  pastorate  of  five 
months,  Knox  delivered  a  consolatory  discourse  to 
about  fifty  of  the  congregation,  who  had  assembled  at 
his  lodgings;  and  the  next  day  he  left  for  Geneva. 
Afterwards  the  magistrates  granted  the  English  congre- 
gation the  use  of  the  English  liturgy  ;  but,  for  this,  they 
had  to  make  concessions,  giving  up  private  baptism, 
confirmation  of  children,  saint's  days,  kneeling  at  the 
Lord's  supper,  linen  surplices  of  ministers,  crosses  and 
other  things  of  like  character.  Whittingham  and  the 
greater  part  of  the  English  colony  afterward  went  to 
Geneva,  and  there  chose  Knox  as  pastor.  This  breach 
at  Frankford  was  the  beginning  of  dissent  in  the  Eng- 
lish church,  a  miniature  prophecy  of  the  future  troubles 
between  the  Episcopalians  and  Puritans  in  England. 

Such  had  been  the  state  of  affairs  at  Frankford  when 
Lasco  arrived.  The  dissension  in  the  English  church 
had  spread  to  a  dissension  between  the  German  churches 
and  the  foreigners.  Already  before  Lasco's  arrival  the 
guilds  or  trades  in  Frankford  began  to  become  jealous 
of  the  ingenuity  and  prosperity  of  these  foreigners. 
Westphal  of  Hamburg  wrote  a  communication  to  the 
magistrates  at  Frankford,  warning  them  against  these 
foreign  Reformed  as  heretics.  Frankford  had  been  a 
city  that  had  sympathized  with  the  low  Melancthouian 


104         THE    REFORMED    CHURCH    OF    GERMANY. 

or  Zwinglian  views;  so  that  in   August,   1555,  Calvin 
had  dedicated  his  commentary  on  the  first  three  gospels 
to  that  city.     They  generously  returned  thanks  for  that 
honor  and  sent  a  present  of  fifty  gold  florins  to  Calvin. 
But  just  before  the  coming  of  the  refugees,  Beyer,  a 
strong  Lutheran,  aroused  the  city  to  high  Lutheranism. 
The  Diet  of  Augsburg,  in  1555,  had  decided  that  only 
Catholicism  and  Lutheranism  had  a  right   to    exist   in 
Germany.    This  strengthened  the  high  Lutherans.    And 
when  Westphal  wrote  against  the  Reformed  as  heretics, 
it    roused    the    city    clergy.      As  early   as    September, 
1555,  the  Frankford  ministers  brought  complaint  to  the 
city  against  the  refugees,  that  they  taught  heresy.     And 
Lasco,  when  he  arrived,  was  compelled  to  sign  the  Augs- 
burg confession  ;  which  he  was  perfectly  willing  to  do, 
as  he  found  nothing  in  it  about   the    new   doctrine   of 
ubiquity.     Lasco,  in  his  anxiety  for  the  welfare  of  the 
Dutch  church  in  Frankford,  went  from  prince  to  prince 
in  Germany,  interceding  for  them.      He  went  to  Land- 
grave Phillip  of  Hesse  and  Elector  Otto  Henry  of  the 
Palatinate.     He  plead  for  sympathy  for  them  and  for  the 
unity  of  the  Church.     He  wanted  to  be  a  new  reformer, 
to  unite  the  Lutheran  and  the  Reformed  Churches  in 
Germany,  as  Bucer  had  done  before  him.     He  aimed  to 
unite  Lutheranism  and  Zwinglianism  on    the    basis    of 
Calvinism.     By    this  middle  position  of  Calvinism  he 
hoped  to  gain  a  place  for  his  refugee  churches  in  Ger- 


LASCO    AND    CALVIN    AT    FRANKFORD.  105 

many.  But  his  efforts  were  a  sad  failure.  He  came 
to  Duke  Christopher  of  Wurtemberg,  Brenz,  the  leader 
of  the  Lutheran  church  of  Wurtemberg,  and,  after 
Melancthon,  the  most  influential  Lutheran  in  Germany, 
had  been  a  Melancthonian  ;  and  Lasco  hoped  to  win 
him  to  unity  by  a  conference  held  at  Stuttgart  in  May, 
1556.  But  instead  of  bringing  unity,  it  brought  dis- 
cord ;  for  this  conference  opened  Brenz^s  eyes  to  the 
dangers  of  Calvinism,  that  lurked  in  the  Augsburg  Con- 
fession. This  conference  committed  him  against  Me- 
lancthon and  his  party.  From  that  day  Brenz  became 
an  intense  high  Lutheran.*  The  city  ministers  of  Frank- 
ford  now  began  preaching  against  these  Reformed  for- 
eigners. Calvin,  hoping  to  intercede  for  them,  came  to 
Frankford  in  September,  1556.  He  preached  in  the 
church  of  the  White  Lady  and  baptized  there,  but  visited 
none  of  the  Lutheran  ministers.  Still  such  was  his 
influence  in  Frankford  that  he  addressed  an  assembly  of 
ministers  in  Romer  Hall,  where  the  Emperors  of  Ger- 
many were  elected  and  crowned.  There  this  uncrowned 
king  of  theology  interceded  for  the  refugees.  Calvin 
left  Frankford  in  October,  and  the  English  and  French 
refugees  were  allowed  to  remain,  but  they  had  to  sub- 
scribe to  the  Augsburg  Confession.  Lasco  left  Frank- 
ford to  go  back  to  his  native  Poland,  and  introduce  the 


*Thus,  while  the  Lutherans  under  Flacius  were  digging  a 
grave  for  themselves  in  ducal  Saxony,  Wurtemberg  took  up 
high  Lutheranism  and  saved  it. 

8 


106  THE    REFORMED    CHURCH    OF    GERMANY. 

reformation  there.     On   his  way  homeward  he  learned 
to  know  Melanethon  and  Ursinus  at  Wittenberg ;    and 
only   regretted  that  his  time  with  them  was  so  short. 
John  A.  Lasco  was  one  of  the  finest  characters  among 
the  reformers.     Strong  in  his  convictions,  he  was  yet 
liberal  in  his  sympathies.     Sacrificing  wealth  and  posi- 
tion, this  nobleman-preacher  wandered,  a   refugee   for 
tffe  cause  of  Christ.     Perhaps  he  did  more  to  introduce 
the  Reformed  faith  into  different  lands  in  Europe  than 
any  other  reformer.     After  the  departure  of  Lasco,  these 
refugees  were  allowed  to  remain  at  Frankford,  through 
the  influence  of  Landgrave  Phillip  of  Hesse  and  Elector 
Otto  Henry  of  the  Palatinate,  who  were  Melanethon ians 
and  liberal  Lutherans.     When  the  conference  of  nobles 
met  at  Frankford  in   1557,  these  refugees  laid   before 
them  their  confession  of  faith  ;    and  the  conference  de- 
cided to  protect  them.     But  the  high  Lutherans  began  to 
storm  against  them.     The  English  went  back  to  England 
in  1558,  after  Queen  Mary's  death,  and  the  accession  of 
Elizabeth  to  the  throne.     In  1562  the  refugees  were  all 
ordered  away,  because  they  were  Reformed.    Some  went 
to  the  neighboring  province  of  Hanau.     Others  remain- 
ed in  the  city  and  attended  worship  at  Bockenheim  in 
Hesse,  just  outside  of  Frankford.      A   second   colony 
went  to  Hanau  in  1597.     Later,  in  1661,  those  remain- 
ing in  Frankford  were  granted  permission  to  build  a 
church  before  the  gate,  where  they  could  hold  service  and 


DRIVEN  OUT  OF  FRANK  FORD.         107 

celebrate  the  Lord's  supper  ;  but  they  had  no  other  privi- 
leges. This  congregation  afterwards  united  with  the 
Hanau  Reformed  churches.*  But  the  most  important 
link  in  this  history  was  a  colony  of  sixty  families  who 
went  under  Dathenus  to  the  Palatinate  and  settled  at 
Frankenthal,  near  Heidelberg,  at  the  junction  of  the 
Rhine  and  Neckar  rivers.  This  colony  introduced  the 
Reformed  faith  for  the  first  time  into  the  Palatinate.  It 
gave  those  Palatines  an  idea  of  the  strict  church  dis- 
cipline and  simplicity  of  the  worship  of  the  Reformed 
faith.  Because  he  had  met  Lasco  at  Wittenberg,  Ursi- 
nus  afterward  felt  an  interest  in  this  flourishing  colony 
of  foreigners.  It  is  worthy  of  note  that  these  Dutch 
colonists  brought  with  them  Lasco's  catechism  and  called 
attention  to  it  in  the  Palatinate  ;  and  thus  prepared  the 
way  for  the  use  of  this  catechism  in  the  composition  of 
the  Heidelberg  catechism. 

*Only  as  late  as  1792  3  was  the  erection  of  a  Reformed  church 
allowed  iu  Frankford.  And  that  was  not  allowed  to  appear  like 
a  church,  only  like  a  chapel  or  ordinary  house. 


CHAPTER  I.— SECTION  V. 

Melancthon  and  his  Preparation  of  Germany  for  the  Re- 
formed Church. 

Melancthon  was  one  of  the  leaders  of  Lutheranisra. 
He  was  also  a  forerunner  of  the  Reformed  faith  in  Ger- 
many. Although  he  never  belonged  to  the  Reformed 
Church,  still  his  influence  prepared  Germany  to  receive 
it.  The  followers  of  Melancthon  would  probably  have 
remained  Lutheran ;  but  the  attacks  of  the  high  Lu- 
therans drove  the  Melancthonians  out  of  the  Lutheran 
Church  into  the  Reformed.  In  thus  preparing  the  way 
for  the  Reformed  faith,  the  influence  of  Melancthon  was 
not  a  local  influence,  like  those  mentioned  before.  But 
it  was  rather  a  national  influence — affecting  all  Ger- 
many. It  was  a  mental  influence — an  influence  of 
thought,  rather  than  of  place,  preparing  the  people  for 
the  liberal  views  and  simple  worship  of  the  Reformed 
Church. 

Melancthon  was  a  native  of  the  Palatinate,  having 
been  born  at  Bretten  in  1497.  His  name  Schwartzerd 
(black  earth)  was,  according  to  the  custom  of  the  day, 
latinized  into  Melancthon.  As  a  boy  he  was  exceed- 
ingly precocious.     At  Pforzheim,  the  home  of  his  grand- 


MELANCTHON  AND  LUTHER.         109 

mother,  he  received  a  liberal  education  under  Reuchlin, 
one  of  the  leaders  of  humanism.  He  fired  Melancthon's 
zeal  for  the  new  sciences.  At  thirteen  years  of  age, 
Melancthon  entered  Heidelberg  university ;  at  fourteen, 
he  was  made  bachelor  of  arts ;  at  sixteen,  he  published 
a  Greek  grammar  ;  at  seventeen,  he  was  made  master  of 
arts,  then  a  lecturer  at  the  university  in  Tubingen  at 
seventeen.  After  such  a  career  of  precocity,  he  crowned 
it  at  the  early  age  of  twenty-one,  by  entering  on  his  life- 
work  as  a  professor  at  Wittenbei^.  Before  he  went  to 
Wittenberg,  while  a  decided  adherent  of  the  reformation, 
he  was  yet  more  of  a  classical  scholar  than  a  theologian. 
As  one  says,  "  without  Luther  he  would  have  been  a 
second  Erasmus."  But  his  intercourse  with  Luther 
deepened  his  spiritual  nature  and  made  a  theologian  out 
of  him.  He  did  not  possess  the  popular  gifts  of  Luther; 
but  he  excelled  him  in  scholarship.  Luther  gained  the 
common  people  to  the  Reformation,  Melancthon  attracted 
the  scholars.  Luther  was  the  scholastic,  Melancthon  the 
humanist ;  Luther  the  converted  monk,  Melancthon 
the  converted  scholar.*  He  was  a  man  of  broader  views 
than  Luther,  but  lacked  his  decision  ;  and  was,  at  times, 
timid  and  vacillating.  He  was  called  the  ^preceptor  or 
teacher  of  Germany.'  He  has  the  honor  of  publishing 
the  first  book  on  Protestant  theology,  his  Loci  Communes 

*Dr.   Schatf  says  :    "  Luther  was  conclusive  and  exclusive, 
Melancthon  exhaustive  and  liberal." 


110         THE    REFORMED    CHURCH    OF    GERMANY. 

or  common-places,  published  in  1521,  (fifteen  years  be- 
fore Calvin's  Institutes  were  published.)  This  book  on 
theology  grew  out  of  his  lectures  on  Romans.*  He  oc- 
cupied the  rare  position  of  being  the  leader  of  the  Prot- 
estants in  nearly  all  the  negotiations  with  the  Catholics ; 
Luther  having  been  debarred  from  such  a  position,  be- 
cause he  had  been  excommunicated  from  the  Church. 
So  Melancthon  became  the  leader  in  Protestant  diplo- 
macy. At  Spire  he  aided  in  drawing  up  the  famous 
protest  that  gave  to  Protestants  their  name.  In  com- 
pany with  Luther,  he  went  to  Marburg,  where  he  met 
Zwingli.  But  he  never  seemed  to  fancy  Zwingli.  The 
views  of  the  Swiss  were  too  radical  for  him.  He  was 
inclined,  sometimes,  to  impute  Zwingli's  views  to  a  spe- 
•cies  of  insanity.  With  Ecolampadius  he  agreed  much 
better,  and  formed  a  close  intimacy.  Melancthon  ap- 
pears to  his  greatest  advantage  at  the  Diet  of  Augsburg 
in  1530.  There  he  stood  forth  as  the  great  representa- 
tive of  Protestantism.  He  drew  up  the  Augsburg  Con- 
fession, a  monument  of  ability  and  learning.  It  was 
signed  by  Saxony,  Brunswick-Luneberg,  Hesse,  Anhalt 
and  the  cities  of  Nuremberg  and  Reutlingen.  It  was 
a  master    piece,  written  when  Melancthon  was  in  the 

*This  work,  says  a  writer,  is  not  to  be  compared  with  Cal- 
vin's Institutes,  either  in  its  arrangement,  solidity  of  proof, 
strength  of  argument,  and  completeness  of  system.  It  was 
rather  dialectic  than  speculative,  practical  than  theoretical.  He 
emphasized  the  ethical  rather  than  the  mystical  in  religion. 


MELANCTHON   AT   AUGSBURG.  Ill 

zenith  of  his  power  and  influence,  almost  eclipsing  Lu- 
ther. It  is,  however,  to  be  remembered  that  this  Con- 
fession was  not  drawn  up  to  be  a  creed,  but  to  be  a  basis 
of  negotiations  with  the  Catholics.  It  was  not  an  ec- 
clesiastical, but  a  civil  creed.  But  it  afterwards  became 
a  theological  creed,  because  the  Emperor  treated  the 
Protestants  through  it,  and  they  were  compelled  to  ac- 
cept it  as  the  creed  of  their  churches.  When  the  Smal- 
cald  League  was  formed,  it  was  accepted  by  the  Prot- 
estant states  of  Germany,  who  organized  that  league 
under  it.  In  this  Augsburg  Confession  the  article 
about  the  Lord's  supper  is  strongly  Lutheran,  and  was 
aimed  against  Zwinglianism,  although  Zwinglianism  is 
not  mentioned  in  it.  But,  while  it  rejected  Zwinglian- 
ism, it  was  not  aimed  against  that  higher  view  of  the 
sacraments  called  Calvinism  ;  for  Calvinism  had  not 
appeared  as  yet.  Calvinism  is  only  a  fuller  expression 
of  Zwinglianism.  So  that  the  Calvinists  afterward 
could  claim  that  they  were  under  the  protection  of  the 
Augsburg  Confession,  because  they  could  subscribe  to 
its  doctrines  of  the  Lord's  supper,  especially  in  the  later 
edition  of  1540.  After  this  Diet  of  Augsburg,  Melanc- 
thon  retired  to  Wittenberg.  His  political  duties  being 
over  for  a  time,  he  betook  himself  more  than  ever  to 
study.  And  now  a  change  gradually  came  over  him 
in  his  theological  position.  He  began  to  lower  his 
views  on  the  Lord's  supper  and  separate  himself  from 


112         THE   REFORMED    CHURCH    OF   GERMANY. 

the  high  Lutheran  doctrine.  Ecolarnpadius'  dialogue/ 
in  which  he  quoted  the  church  fathers  to  support  the 
Reformed  views,  made  a  deep  impression  on  him.  (This 
book  Melancthon  received  while  at  Augsburg.)  Melanc- 
thon  was  also  influenced,  (according  to  Bucer's  state- 
ments), by  his  correspondence  with  Ecolampadius. 
Bucer's  unwearying  efforts  toward  union,  made  between 
1530  and  1536,  also  affected  him.  The  result  of  all  these 
influences  was,  that  in  1534,  when  he  met  Bucer  at 
Cassel  to  prepare  the  way  for  what  afterward  became 
the  Witteaberg  Concord,  Melancthon  gave  up  the 
Lutheran  doctrine  of  oral  manducation,  or  the  receiving 
of  Christ's  body  and  blood  through  the  mouth,  at  the 
Lord's  supper.  Luther,  when  he  sent  Melancthon  to 
Cassel  to  treat  with  Bucer  about  union  with  the  Re- 
formed, gave  him  strict  orders  not  to  recede  from  this 
doctrine  of  oral  manducation  in  his  negotiations  with 
Bucer.  But  individually  he  did  recede.  Still  he  stated 
Luther's  views  instead  of  giving  his  own.  He  said  to 
Camerarius,  his  bosom  friend,  "  Ask  me  not  in  reference 
to  my  view ;  for  I  am  merely  the  messenger  of  some 
friend."  Outwardly  he  remained  in  harmony  with  the 
Lutheran  Church  ;  but  when  he  signed  the  Wittenberg 
Concord  in  1536,  he  acknowledged  that  Calvin's  view  of 
the  Lord's  supper  could  be  tolerated.  His  opposition 
to  the  doctrine  of  oral  manducation  finally  led  him  to 
his   later  opposition  to  the  doctrine  of  ubiquity.       He 


113 


gradually  drifted  more  and  more  from  Luther's  position, 
and  from  high  Lutheranism.  In  the  second  edition  of 
his  'Loci  Communes'  or  theology,  he  began  to  maintain 
that  the  will  of  man  had  something  to  do  with  conver- 
sion.* He  thus  became  synergistic.  He  held  that, 
although  God  alone  can  save  men,  yet  men  have  the 
power  to  accept  and  work  along  with  God's  will.  He 
was  not  a  semi-Pelagian,  because  he  ascribed  the  be- 
ginning and  end  of  conversion  to  God's  grace.  But  he 
was  a  lower  predestinarian  than  Luther  or  Calvin.  As 
a  result  of  this  view,  he  held  that  conversion  was  not  a 
mere  mechanical  process,  but  a  moral  change  wrought 
by  God's  Spirit,  man's  will  consenting  to  it.  After 
having  thus  changed  his  views,  he  not  only  altered  his 
Loci  Communes,  but  he  also  altered  the  Augsburg  Con- 
fession to  suit  his  views.  He  left  out  the  word  'sola'  in 
the  clause  which  declared  that  we  are  saved  by  faith 
'alone.'  He  thus  implied  that  we  are  saved  not  only 
by  faith,  but  that  works  had  a  place  in  the  gospel.  He 
also  changed  the  article  about  the  Lord's  supper.  He 
changed  the  word  'distribute'  to  'exhibit.'  He  thus 
said  that  Christ's  body  was   exhibited,  as   Zwingli   had 

*'•  In  1527  he  gave  up  determinism  at  Leipsic,  for  the  Infralap- 
sarian  views.  In  1532  he  gave  up  Infralapsarianism,  and  in 
1535  he  became  synergistic,  and  held  that  the  will  of  man  works 
along  with  the  will  of  God  in  conversion.  In  the  first  edition  of 
his  theology,  he  called  the  doctrine  of  free  will  a  godless  doc- 
trine. But  later  he  held  that  man's  will  consented  to,  and  con- 
spired with,  the  grace  of  God." 


114         THE    REFORMED    CHURCH    OF   GERMANY. 

declared  ;  rather  than  distributed,  as  Luther  had  taught  * 
The  Elector  of  Saxony  afterwards  censured  Melancthon 
for  altering  the  Augsburg  Confession  thus.  Tradition 
has  it,  that  Luther  said,  "Phillip,  Phillip,  you  do  not 
right  to  change  so  often  the  Augsburg  Confession.  It 
is  not  your's,  but  the  Church's  book.^'f  But,  although  it 
would  seem  strange  for  any  single  individual  to  alter  a 
Church  creed  now,  it  was  not  unusual  in  that  day.  The 
Augsburg  Confession  had  never  been  adopted  officially 
by  a  Church  synod.  It  was  merely  a  basis  of  negotia- 
tions with  the  Catholics ;  and  if  the  Catholics  did  not 
object  to  the  change,  the  Protestants  did  not  need  to. 
Luther  did  not  need  to  complain  of  Melancthon's 
changes ;  for  Melancthon's  alteration  was  merely  a 
copy  of  the  Smalcald  Articles  as  composed  by  Luther 
in  1537,  which  set  forth  the  doctrine  of  the  Lord's  sup- 
per in  a  form  which  allowed  room  for  Melancthon's  po- 
sition. Amsdorf  at  that  time  urged  Luther  to  alter  his 
phraseology  in  favor  of  a  higher  Lutheran  position. 
But  Luther  did  not  do  it.  Amsdorf's  suggestion  was 
dropped,  to  be  taken  up  and  urged  by  the  high  Luther- 
ans after  Luther's  death,  when  the  high  Lutheran  views 
were  expanded  in  the  Formula  of  Concord. 

*The  Reformed  could  now  subscribe  to  the  Augsburg  Confes- 
sion as  well  as  the  Lutherans.  Zwiiigli  could  now  sign  this  al- 
tered confession,  except,  perhaps,  the  word  'truly'  in  the  article 
on  the  Lord's  supper.     Calvin  did  sign  the  confession. 

fThis  tradition,  according  to  Herzog,  is  apochryphal. 


MELANCTHON    AND    CAI.VIN.  115 

But  although  these  changes  were  made  in  the  Augs- 
burg Confession,  they  were  hardly  noticed,  or,  if  noticed, 
were  supported  by  the  Protestants.  This  altered  Augs- 
burg Confession,  as  it  was  called,  was  used  by  the  high 
Lutherans  for  twenty  years  in  conferences,  diets  and 
churches  without  opposition.  Indeed,  the  old  or  un- 
altered Augsburg  Confession  had  so  entirely  disappeared 
that,  when  Count  Augustus  of  Nassau,  in  1680,  wanted 
to  get  a  C(^py  of  it,  he  had  to  go  to  the  Catholics  for  a 
copy.  The  Elector  of  Mayence  loaned  him  the  original 
copy  given  at  Augsburg  in  1530,  which  had  been  placed 
in  the  royal  archives  at  Mayence.*  And  now  occurred 
another  event  that  greatly  influenced  Melancthon^s 
views.  It  was  his  meeting  with  Calvin.  He  met  Cal- 
vin at  the  conferences  at  Frankford  and  \yorms.  Me- 
lancthon  there  had  his  eyes  opened  to  see  the  differences 
between  what  Lutherans  supposed  to  be  Zwingli's  doc- 
trine of  the  Lord's  supper  and  Calvin's.  He  saw  that 
Calvin  was  higher  than  he  thought  Zwingli  had  been. 
During  the  years  that  had  elapsed  since  Luther  met 
Zwingli  at  Marburg,  Calvin  had  developed  the  views  of 
the  Reformed  Church  upward,  while  Melancthon  had 
been  toning  dow^n  the  Lutheranism  of  the  Lord's  sup- 
per.    They,  therefore,  neared  each  other.     Calvin,  too, 

*The  'altered'  Augsburg  was  also  called  the  'enlarged,' 
'improved'  confession.  Only  in  1561  did  the  high  Lutherans 
begin  to  call  it  the  'altered',  to  suggest  that  it  ditlered  from  the 
original  of  1530. 


116         THE   REFORMED   CHURCH    OF   GERMANY. 

learned  to  understand  the  German  controversies,  while 
Melancthon  learned  to  understand  the  Swiss  theology. 
And  yet,  although  these  two  leaders  of  the  two  Churches 
approached  each  other,  still  they  differed.  Melancthon 
was  always  tinged  with  the  ''real  presence  of  Christ'^ 
views  of  Luther.  He  held  to  Christ's  real  bodily  pres- 
ence in  connection  with  the  emblems,  although  he  did 
not  associate  it  as  closely  with  them  as  did  Luther  in 
the  phrase  'in,  with  and  under.'  While  Calvin  was 
tinctured  with  the  spiritual  presence  of  Zwingli,  and 
held  the  presence  of  Christ,  but  that  it  was  a  spiritual 
presence ;  not  in  the  emblems,  but  in  the  soul  of  the 
believer.  They  also  differed  very  decidedly  on  other 
points.  They  differed  on  predestination  and  the  power 
of  the  will.  Melancthon  was  synergistic.  Calvin  was 
necessarian.  They  also  differed  on  the  extent  of  the 
atonement.  Melancthon  held  that  Christ's  atonement 
was  a  universal  one  for  all  men ;  Calvin's,  that  it  was 
limited — that  it  was  for  the  elect  only.  They  also  dif- 
fered in  their  doctrine  of  the  person  of  Christ.  Melanc- 
thon agreed  to  a  real  communication  of  the  two  natures 
of  Christ,  which  Calvin  did  not  believe.  But  they 
especially  differed  in  regard  to  rites  and  customs  of  wor- 
ship. Calvin  very  strongly  reproached  Melancthon 
with  his  laxity  toward  altars  and  other  semi-papal  rites 
in  the  Lutheran  Church.  He  was  very  greatly  sad- 
dened by  the  Lutheran   worship  he  saw  at  Ratisbon, 


MELANCTHON  AND  LUTHER.         117 

with  its  crosses,  altars  and  robes.  Melancthon  always 
showed  a  yielding  toward  the  Catholics,  which  the  stern, 
stiff  Calvin  would  not  tolerate.  In  this  they  represent 
the  position  of  the  two  Churches  in  cultus — the  Luther- 
ans yielding  and  sacramentarian,  the  Reformed  decided 
and  anti-sacramentarian.  But  notwithstanding  these 
theological  differences,  they  became  very  warm  personal 
friends.  This  strong  personal  attachment  to  Calvin  ex- 
posed Melancthon  to  the  suspicions  of  the  high  Luther- 
ans as  early  as  1544.  In  that  year  Melancthon  rather 
expected  that  Luther  would  attack  him  in  his  shorter 
catechism.  At  that  time,  just  before  his  death,  Luther, 
while  he  respected  Calvin,  became  terribly  exasperated 
against  the  Zurich  divines,  and  began  to  write  very  se- 
verely against  them.  Melancthon  thus  became  very 
uncomfortable  at  Wittenberg.  He  compared  himself  to 
^  Prometheus  bound  in  Caucasus.'  Luther  seemed  to  have 
softened  before  he  died,  in  1546,  for  he  said  to  Melanc- 
thon in  the  presence  of  Hardenberg,  "Dear  Phillip,  I 
must  confess  that  the  matter  of  the  Lord's  supper  has 
been  much  overdone." 

But,  with  Luther's  death,  the  storm  broke  over  Me- 
lancthon's  head.  As  long  as  Luther  lived,  his  influence 
restrained  Melancthon's  foes  from  openly  attacking  him. 
But  when  Luther  died,  the  link  between  the  two  tenden- 
cies of  Lutheranism  was  broken.  And  Lutheranism 
split  into  two  sections — a  high  or  old    Lutheran    party, 


118  THE    REFORMED   CHURCH    OF   GERMANY. 

and  a  low  Lutheran  or  Melancthonian  party.  The 
Gnesio  or  high  Lutherans  were  led  by  Amsdorf,  Flacius, 
Wigand  and  Morlin.  They  were  the  conservative  party. 
They  considered  themselves  the  guardians  of  orthodoxy  ; 
and  by  orthodoxy,  they  meant  strict  Lutheranism.  The 
Melancthonians  or  Phillipists  were  the  progressive  party. 
The  first  almost  worshipped  Luther  ;  the  latter  held 
Melancthon  in  as  high  esteem  as  Luther.  This  breach 
was  still  further  widened  by  a  rivalry  that  arose  between 
the  two  princely  houses  of  Saxony,  the  Electoral  and 
Ducal  families.  Electoral  Saxony  contained  Leipsic, 
Wittenberg  and  Dresden,  which  were  Melancthonian. 
Ducal  Saxony,  situated  farther  west,  consisting  of 
Saxe-Weimar  and  Saxe-Gotha,  contained  the  newly 
founded  university  of  Jena.  It  became  intensely  high 
Lutheran,  and  aimed  to  rival  Wittenberg  university. 
This  rivalry  helped  to  widen  the  breach  between  the 
two  parties  in  the  Lutheran  Church.  The  Interim  of 
1548  made  the  separation  of  the  two  wings  of  Lutheran- 
ism still  wider.  This  Interim  compelled  the  Protestants 
to  use  certain  Catholic  ceremonies.  Melancthon  was, 
as  usual,  concessive  to  the  Catholic  Church.  Weak  of 
will  himself,  he  now  missed  Luther's  strong  support. 
It  is  true,  he  took  no  part  in  framing  the  Augsburg 
Interim;  but  he  committed  himself  to  the  greater  part 
of  it  by  his  adoption  of  the  Leipsic  Interim,  which  was 
only  a  modification  of  the   Augsburg   Interim.      This 


MELANCTHON    AND   THE   INTERIM.  119 

Leipsic  Interim  allowed  certain  Catholic  practices,  as 
copes,  candles,  fast  days  ;  confession  and  extreme  unc- 
tion were  made  sacraments.  It  was  a  virtual  return 
to  Catholicism  under  the  guise  of  indifference. 

But  this  act  of  Melancthon  broke  his  power  over  the 
Lutherans  of  Germany.  His  enemies  were  more  con- 
sistent Protestants  than  he,  and  they  gloried  in  their 
orthodoxy.  Melancthon's  concessions  to  Rome  gave 
them  an  opportunity  to  attack  him  on  a  weak  point, 
where  he  could  least  defend  himself.  They  quickly 
saw  their  opportunity,  and  took  advantage  of  it  to  at- 
tack him.  Flacius  came  out  against  him,  and  charged 
him  with  diluting  the  article  about  justification  by 
faith  in  the  Leipsic  Interim.  ''  An  action  like  this," 
says  one,  "  could  have  been  pardoned  in  Agricola,  but  it 
could  not  be  allowed  to  pass  uncensured  in  Melancthon, 
^  the  teacher  of  Germany.'  "  Thus  his  action  at  the 
Leipsic  Interim  consolidated  his  enemies  against  him, 
and  was  the  signal  for  a  revolt  against  him  in  different 
parts  of  Germany.  The  Protestants  and  the  Catholics 
finally  came  to  an  agreement  a  few  years  later,  when  the 
treaty  of  Passau  was  made,  and  the  Interim  w^as  abol- 
ished. But  though  the  Interim  passed  away,  its  effects 
did  not  pass  away.  The  Lutherans  were  never  united 
after  that.  Though  Catholics  and  Protestants  could 
come  to  an  agreement,  the   Lutherans  could   not  agree 


120         THE    REFORMED    CHURCH    OF   GERMANY. 

among:  themselves.     The   Interim    broke   Lutherauism 
into  two.* 

But,  although  the  Lutherans  quarreled,  Melancthon 
remained  the  leader  of  Lutheranism.     Melancthonianism 
remained  in  the  ascendency  till  he  died.     In    1555    oc- 
curred another  of  the  opportunities,  which  Melancthon's 
timid  nature  made  him  miss.     When  the  high  Lutherans 
treated  the  Reformed  refugees   from    England,    under 
Lasco,  with  such  severity  and  barbarism,  as  to  shock  one's 
sense  of  right  and  mercy  ;  then  was  the  time  for  Melanc- 
thon, in  the  name  of  a  common   humanity,  to  protest 
against  such  treatment  of  the    Reformed.      He   should 
have  taken  advantage  of  it  against  his  enemies,  as  they 
took  advantage  of  him   in   the  Interim.     But   Melanc- 
thon was  timid,  arid  lost  this  opportunity  of  turning  the 
sympathies  of  the  people  against  the  high   Lutherans. 
*'  The  more  high  Lutheranism  advanced,  the  more  tim- 
idly Melancthon  retreated."     In   vain   did  Calvin  ap- 
peal to  him  to  take  up  the  cause  of  the  oppressed  Re- 
formed refugees  under  Lasco.     The  more  carefully  he 
avoided  every  statement,  the  bolder  did  the  other   party 
become  against  him ;  until  finally  Melancthon  was  com- 
pelled to  defend  himself  against  the  attacks  of  high  Lu- 
theranism.    Funk,  the  Osiandrian,  when  compelled  to 

*The  previous  controversies  of  Osiandrianism  and  Majorism 
prepared  the  way  for  Melancthonianism  as  a  distinct  party. 
They  called  attention  to  it  as  a  distinct  tendency  in  theology, 
which  prepared  it  for  Calvinism. 


MELANOTHON    AT    WORMS.  121 

retract,  had  done  so,  but  had  left  a  sting  behind  him  ;  by 
(charging  the  professors  at  Wittenberg,  with  Melancthon 
at  their  head,  with  being  Calvinists.  This  was  the  first 
charge  brought  against  Melanctlion  of  being  a  Calvin- 
ist,  and  it  was  only  a  piece  of  theological  spite.  Then 
to  make  his  party  still  weaker,  Brenz,  the  reformer  of 
Wurtemberg,  joined  Melancthon's  opponents  in  1556. 
This  hurt  Melancthon  very  much,  as  well  as  his  cause  ; 
for  Brenz,  next  to  Melancthon,  was  the  most  influential 
man  in  the  Lutheran  Church  of  that  day.  So  Melanc- 
thon spoke  out  finally,  at  the  conference  at  Worms;  and 
defended  himself  and  routed  his  opponents.  For  the 
differences  between  the  Lutherans  could  not  be  concealed 
from  the  Catholics,  and  they  had  come  out  in  open  court 
of  the  Emperor  at  Ratisbon  in  1556.  This  was  verv 
unfortunate,  for  it  weakened  the  Protestant  cause.  So 
it  was  determined  to  hold  a  conference  at  Worms  in 
1557,  to  unite  the  two  opposing  parties  of  Lutherans. 
Here  at  last,  Melancthon  spoke  out  against  his  enemies. 
His  boldness  rallied  his  followers,  and  he  came  off 
victorious.  The  Jesuits  at  the  previous  conference  at 
Worms  in  1540,  anxious  to  foster  disunion  in  the  Prot- 
estant ranks,  had  called  attention  to  the  differences 
between  the  altered  and  unaltered  Augsburg  Confession  ; 
and  said  that  the  old  was  higher  Lutheran  than  the 
later  one.  This  was  an  apple  of  discord.  It  is  sig- 
nificant that  the  Jesuits  began  this  work  of  disunion, 
9 


122    THE  REFORMED  CHURCH  OF  GERMANY. 

and  that  hereafter  high  Lutherans  and  Jesuits  unite 
against  the  Reformed.  This  difference  appeared  publicly  ; 
as  the  high  Lutherans  adhered  to  the  unaltered,  the 
Melancthonians  to  the  altered  Augsburg  Confession. 
At  Worms,  in  1557,  Melancthon  did,  what  he  did  not  do 
for  Lasco.  He  interceded  for  the  persecuted  Huguenots 
and  Waldensees.*  This  intercession  of  Melancthon  for 
the  Reformed  Huguenots  laid  him  open  to  the  suspicion 
of  the  high  Lutherans,  that  he  was  growing  more  favor- 
able to  the  Reformed  churches.  While  at  Worms,  at 
the  request  of  Elector  Otto  Henry  of  the  Palatinate,  he 
went  to  Heidelberg  to  assist  him  in  arranging  the  eccle- 
siastical affairs  of  that  land.  And,  while  walking  in 
the  beautiful  gardens  of  the  castle  at  Heidelberg,  he 
heard,  through  his  friend  Camerarius,  of  the  death  of 
his  wife  at  Wittenberg.  It  was  a  great  blow  to  him  ; 
but  submissively  he  lifted  up  his  eyes  to  heaven  and 
said,  "  Farewell,  I  shall  soon  follow  thee." 

But,  as  this  conference  at  Worms  led  to  disunion 
rather  than  to  union,  another  conference  was  held  at 
Frankford  in   1558.      Here,  again,   Melancthonianism 

*It  seems  that  the  Reformed,  in  asking  aid,  acknowledged 
three  differences  from  the  Lutherans:  First,  the  manner  in 
which  the  body  and  blood  of  Christ  were  bound  with  the  bread 
and  wine;  second,  the  communion  of  unworthy  at  the  Lord's 
table  ;  third,  the  communication  of  the  qualities  of  the  divine 
nature  to  Christ's  glorified  body ;  so  that,  while  he  was  in 
heaven,  he  could  be  with  us  on  earth.  On  these  three  points 
the  Reformed  Church  was  distinct  from  Melancthon' s  Luther- 
anism. 


MELANCTHON    AT    NAUMBKRG.^  123 

was  victorious.      The  Duke  of  Saxony,  the  leader  of 
high  Lutheranism,  protested  against  the  power  of  Me- 
lancthonianism  here.     So,  finally,  another  conference  of 
nobles  was   held  at   Naumberg  in    1561,  to   prepare  a 
declaratory  statement  of  the   Augsburg  Confession  that 
should  be  submitted  to  the  Emperor  as  the  united   faith 
of  all  his  Protestant  subjects  in  Germany.     Its  aim  was 
to  harmonize  all  parties  of  Lutherans,  so  as  to  be  a  unit 
against  the  Catholics.       At  this  conference  Duke  Christ- 
opher of  Wurtemberg  urged  that,  as  only   two  of  the 
princes,  who  had  originally  signed  the  Augsburg  Con- 
fession in  1530,  still  lived.  Landgrave  Phillip  of  Hesse 
and  Duke  Wolfgang  of  Anhalt,  the  nobles  should  again 
sign  it,  to  signifiy  their  unity  before  the  Emperor.     But 
which  Augsburg  Confession  should  be  signed — the  orig- 
inal or  the  *  altered  ?'    There  was  quite  a  diversity   of 
opinion.     This  diversity  was  finally  harmonized  by  a 
compromise.     This   original  unaltered  Augsburg  Con- 
fession was  signed  ;  but  in  presenting  it  to  the  Emperor, 
a  preface  or  declaratory  statement  was  drawn  up,  which 
gave  a  Melancthonian  interpretation  to  the  old  symbol. 
It  was  a  virtual  victory  for  Melancthonianism,  the  last 
victory  it  gained.     All  the   princes   signed    it,    except 
Duke  John  Frederick  of  Saxony,  and  the  representatives 
of  the  Duke  of  Mecklenberg.     This  Duke  of  Saxony, 
the  protector  of  high   Lutheranism,  left  the  city,   as  a 
protest  against  this  victory  of  Melaucthon.     This  depart- 


124         THE    REFORMED    CHURCH    OF    GERMANY. 

ure  of  the  Duke  of  Saxony  filled  all  with  perplexity. 
It  proved  the  death-knell  of  Melancthonianisiii  in  Ger- 
many. This  act  was  fatal  to  unity.  And  a  reaction 
soon  set  in,  which  was  fatal  to  Melancthonianism,  and 
fatal  to  the  decrees  of  the  Naumberg  Conference.  For 
Melancthou  had  died,  and  there  was  no  master  mind  to 
rally  the  princes  to  its  Melancthonianism.  Through 
all  these  victories  and  in  the  midst  of  this  bitter 
opposition,  Melancthon's  sensitive  nature  was  keenly 
hurt.  To  avoid  the  bitter  opposition  of  his  opponents, 
he  felt  like  going  to  Palestine  to  end  his  days  in  the 
cave  of  Jerome  at  Bethlehem.  His  last  public  act  was 
an  opinion  given  to  the  Elector  of  the  Palatinate ;  when 
the  Elector  asked  him  what  course  to  pursue,  so  as  to 
quiet  the  dissensions  between  Hesshuss  and  Klebitz,  the 
one,  high  Lutheran  and  the  other,  Reformed.  Melanc- 
thon's advice  was  that  at  the  Lord's  supper,  only  Scripture 
phrases  should  be  used.  These  would  give  no  offense 
and  would  quiet  disputes. 

Melancthon  died  April  19,  1560,  having  thanked 
God  that  he  was  now  at  last  to  be  delivered  from  the 
rage  and  madness  of  theologians.  His  mind  remained 
clear  to  the  last.  His  consolation  was  the  verse,  ^  Christ 
is  made  unto  us  wisdom,  righteousness,  sanctification  and 
redemption,'  a  verse  which  afterwards  became  the  basis 
of  the  eighteenth  answer  of  the  Heidelberg  Catechism. 
When  Pencer,  his  son-in-law,  asked    him    whether  he 


melancthon's  death.  125 

wanted  anything,  his  answer  was  (and  these  were  his 
beautiful  dying  words:)  "Nothing  but  heaven."  He 
was  a  thorough  scholar  and  a  broad-minded  theologian. 
In  his  views  of  doctrine  he  neared  the  moderate  Cal- 
vinists  of  to-day.  But  the  moderate  Calvinism  of  to- 
day is  not  the  strict  Calvinism  of  three  centuries  ago. 
Melancthou  never  was  a  Calvinist,  and  can  not,  there- 
fore, be  quoted  as  one  of  the  Fathers  of  the  Reformed 
Churcli.  He  lived  and  died  a  consistent  Lutheran.  He 
always  differed  from  the  Calvinists  in  his  views  on  cul- 
tus  or  church  customs.  After  his  death,  the  breach  in 
the  Lutheran  Church  widened.  His  death  started  the 
high  Lutherans  to  make  a  decided  effort  to  control  and 
organize  the  Lutheran  Church  in  Germany.  Melanc- 
thonianism  gradually  declined.  No  great  theological 
leader  came  forth  from  the  Melancthonian  wing  to  de- 
feud  it.  And  his  followers  either  went  over,  or  were 
driven  over,  to  the  Reformed  Church. 

Thus,  Melancthon  and  Melaucthonianism  prepared 
the  way  for  the  Reformed  Church  in  Germany.  Like 
John  the  Baptist,  it  could  say  :  "  I  am  not  that  prophet." 
But  the  prophet  came  after  it,  in  the  Reformed  faith. 
But  Melancthon  and  his  theology  performed  an  impor- 
tant mission  by  opening  up  the  way  through  which  the 
Reformed  doctrines  could  enter  Germany. 


CHAPTER  II. 

The  Introduction  of  the  Reformed  Faith  Into 
the  Palatinate. 

SECTION  I. 

The  Preparation  of  the  Palatinate  for  the  Reformed 
Church. 

The  Palatinate,  and  especially  Heidelberg,  became 
the  centre  and  home  of  the  Reformed  Church  in  Ger- 
many. All  the  previous  efforts  to  introduce  the  Re- 
formed doctrines  into  Germany  were  only  partially  Re- 
formed, or  were  transitory  in  results.  Strasburg  lost  its 
Reformed  type  and  became  Lutheran  ;  Hesse,  while 
Reformed  in  church  government,  remained  Lutheran 
(though  of  a  mild  type).  In  Friesland,  the  Reformed 
faith  lingered  under  difficulties.  The  foreign  churches 
in  Germany,  especially  at  Frankford,  did  not  affect 
the  German  people  very  much.  Still  all  these  move- 
ments prepared  the  way  for  a  greater  movement,  which 
culminated  in  the  conversion  of  the  Elector  of  the  Pa- 
latinate to  the  Reformed  Church.  For  it  was  the  de- 
fence of  the    Elector    Frederick    III.,  at  Augsburg,  in 


THE    PALATINATE.  127 

1566,  that  gave  the   Reformed   faith    legal    standing  in 
Germany,  and  placed  it  on  a  permanent  basis.* 

The  Palatinate  consisted  of  two  parts,  the  Upper 
and  the  Lower  Palatinate  ;  the  latter  being  called  the 
Rhine  Palatinate,  as  it  lay  along  the  Rhine,  and  also 
the  Wine  Palatinate,  because  of  its  vineyards.  It  was 
not  as  large  as  the  Upper  Palatinate ;  but  it  was  far 
more  populous  and  fertile.  The  Lower  Palatinate  was 
one  of  the  most  enlightened  and  beautiful  countries  in 
Europe  in  the  sixteenth  century.  The  '  Berg  Strasse' 
or  public  road  from  Frankford  to  Heidelberg  was  one 
of  the  finest  roads  on  the  continent.  The  Lower  Palat- 
inate consisted  of  five  principalities — Simmern,  Spon- 
heim,  Beldenz,  Zweibrucken  and  the  Palatinate  proper. 
It  has  since  disappeared  from  the  map,  having  been 
dismembered.  It  is  now  included  in  Baden,  Hesse  and 
other  states  of  Germany.  The  Upper  Palatinate  lay  on 
the  western  border  of  Bohemia.  It  was  the  larger  of 
the  two  provinces,  but  not  so  fertile  or  populous.  It 
was  rich  in  pasture  lands  and  in  mineral  wealth,  but  its 
farms  were  not  large  enough  to  raise  sufficient  grain  for 
its  people.     Its  principal  city  was  Amberg.     The  Elec- 

*The  name  Palatinate  is  from  the  Latin  Palatium,  one  of  the 
•seven  hills  of  Rome,  where  Emperor  Augustus  lived.  From 
that  the  word  became  the  designation  of  a  royal  palace  in  any 
part  of  the  Roman  empire.  It  finally  was  applied  to  any  part 
of  district  of  land,  marked  by  such  a  palace.  One  of  the  early 
Electors  of  the  Palatinate  indulged  the  hope  that  his  land  might 
yet  become  the  centre  of  as  great  a  kingdom  as  the  Roman 
empire;  and  hence  he  named  it  after  the  palace-hill  of  Rome. 


128         THE    REFORMED   CHURCH    OF    GERMANY. 

tor,  while  visiting,  generally  resided  at  the  monastery 
of  Castel,  near  Amberg.  The  Upper  Palatinate  has 
since  been  incorporated  in  Bavaria.  There  was  also  a 
small  county  of  Neuberg,  lying  east  of  Wurtemberg, 
which  belonged  to  the  Palatinate  princes.* 

The  Palatinate  at  first  became  Lutheran,  but  it  was 
Lutheranism  of  a  mild  type.  It  was  Melancthonian- 
ism.  Melancthon  was  a  native  of  the  Palatinate,  hav- 
ing been  born  at  Bretten,  and  his  influence  was  supreme 
in  that  land.  The  Elector  of  the  Palatinate,  with  Land- 
grave Phillip  of  Hesse,  were  the  leading  Melancthonian 
princes  of  Germany.  From  this  mild  Lutheranism  the 
Palatinate  gradually  drifted,  until  it  entered  the  Re- 
formed Church.  Lasco,  by  his  visit  to  Elector  Otto 
Henry,  made  him  somewhat  acquainted  with  the  Re- 
formed faith.     The  Dutch  Reformed  who  came   from 

*This  Electorate  of  the  Palatinate,  consisting  of  Upper  and 
Lower  Palatinate,  was  the  most  prominent  Electorate  of  Ger- 
many in  the  sixteenth  century.  There  were  six  Electorates  in 
Germany — three  temporal  and  three  spiritual.  The  temporal 
Electorates  were  Palatinate,  Saxony  and  Brandeuberg;  the 
spiritual,  Cologne,  Mayeuce  and  Treves.  To  these  Electorates 
Bohemia  may  also  be  added.  The  rulers  of  these  lands  stood  at 
the  head  of  all  the  princes  of  Germany,  and  were  called  Electors, 
because  their  votes  elected  the  Emperor  for  Germany.  Of  these 
temporal  Electors,  the  Elector  of  the  Palatinate  was  the  leading 
prince  •  for  he  stood  nearest  the  throne  while  the  Emperor  lived, 
as  his  aid-de-camp,  and  he  was  the  vicegerent  of  the  empire  in 
case  of  the  death  of  the  Emperor.  This  shows  the  prominence 
of  the  Palatinate.  The  conversion,  then,  of  Elector  Frederick  to 
the  Reformed  faith  was  a  wonderful  victory  and  created  a  great 
iseusation. 


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INTRODUCTION    OF    PROTESTANTISM.  129 

Frankford  to  Frankenthal,  near  Heidelberg,  and  made 
that  place  bloom  like  the  rose,  exerted  a  wide  influence 
by  the  surrounding  Palatinate.'  And  in  addition  to 
these  preparations  from  without ;  within  the  Palatinate 
iiself,  there  was  an  internal  preparation  taking  place, 
which  it  is  important  to  note. 

The  Palatinate  became  Protestant  late,  after  most  of 
the  other  German  states  had  received  the  reformation. 
This  slowness  to  receive  Protestantism,  may  have  been 
due  to  the  high  position  of  the  Elector  of  the  Palatinate, 
who,  as  the  first  temporal  Elector  of  Germauy,  was  al- 
ways near  the  imperial  throne.  And  being  so  near  the 
Catholic  Emperor,  he  was  influenced  by  Catholicism. 
But  Heidelberg  could  not  escape  the  rising  tide  of  edu- 
cation and  liberal  science,  which,  under  the  name  of 
Humanism,  was  spreading  through  Germany.  Keuch- 
lin,  the  famous  Greek  teacher,  was  the  first  to  teach 
Greek  in  Heidelberg.  And  when  Luther  visited  Heidel- 
berg in  1518,  he  made  an  address  in  the  Augsburg 
cloister  that  set  Heidelberg  and  South  Germany  on  fire.* 
At  the  Diet  of  Worms,  it  was  the  Elector  Lewis,  who, 
though  a  Catholic,  protected  Luther.  For  the  Emperor 
was  urged  by  the  Catholic  party  to  violate  his  pledge  of 
safe  conduct  to  Luther,  and  put  him  to  death  at  Worms  ; 
but  he  answered  that  he  did  not  wish  to  blush  as  the 

■••The  Augustine  cloister  stood  in  the  open  place  by  the 
university'  building.  The  Augustiner  Gasse,  east  of  the  present 
university  building,  is  a  memento  of  that  cloister. 


130         THE    REFORMED   CHURCH    OF   GERMANY. 

Emperor  Sigismund  had  done  at  the  Council  of  Con- 
stance in  1415,  when  he  had  viokited  John  Huss'  safe 
conduct,  and  put  him  to  death.  At  that  council  of  Con- 
stance, it  was  the  Elector  of  the  Palatinate,  who  carried 
out  the  Emperor's  orders  and  put  Huss  to  death.  Now 
at  the  Diet  of  Worms,  it  is  the  Elector  of  the  same  Pal- 
atinate who  preserves  Luther's  life,  by  giving  him  his 
protection.  And  after  the  Diet  of  Worms,  at  the  Diet 
of  Spire,  when  the  black  clouds  were  gathering  thick 
around  the  Protestant  princes,  it  was  the  Elector  of  the 
Palatinate  who  held  back  the  Catholic  party  from  severe 
measures  against  them.  At  the  Diets  of  Augsburg  and 
Ratisbon,  he  again  was  mediator  between  the  Emperor 
and  the  Protestants.  His  successor.  Elector  Frederick 
II.,  began  his  reign  as  a  Catholic.  But  Protestantism 
was  entering  and  leaving  his  country.  The  knight 
Henry  Landschad  of  Steinach  was  the  first  who,  in 
1522,  dared  to  introduce  the  reformation  into  the  Palat- 
inate at  Neckar-Steinach,  where  he  introduced  a  Zwing- 
lian  minister.  Duke  Otto  Henry  of  Pfalz-Neuberg,  one 
of  the  Palatinate  duchies,  who  was  a  nephew  of  the 
Elector,  introduced  Protestantism  into  his  land.  At 
last,  however,  the  suppressed  feelings  of  the  people 
could  be  no  longer  restrained.  They  broke  forth  in  the 
church  of  the  Holy  Ghost  in  Heidelberg.  On  the  20th 
of  December,  1545,  just  as  the  mass  was  about  to  begin 
in  the  church,  the    assembled    congregation  struck  up  a 


ELECTOR    P^REDEUICK    II.  131 

Pi-otestant  hymn — that  hymn  of  victory  of  the  reforma- 
tion by  Paul  Speratus,  ''  Es  ist  das  Heil  uns  komnien 
her." 

So  the  Elector  ordered  that  the  mass  should  liere- 
after  be  read  in  German  instead  of  Latin  ;  that  the  Lord's 
supper  be  administered  in  two  kinds;  and  that  the 
priests  be  allowed  to  marry.  And  on  Christmas  day, 
1545,  the  Lord's  supper  was  administered  in  both  kinds 
in  the  castle  chapel,  the  members  of  the  court  partaking 
of  it,  except  the  Elector  himself,  who,  for  political  rea- 
sons, did  not  do  so.  On  January  3,  1546,  the  first 
Protestant  service,  with  the  administration  of  the  com- 
munion in  both  kinds,  was  held  in  the  church  of  the 
Holy  Ghost  at  Heidelberg.  But  afterw-ard,  when  the 
Interim  was  placed  on  his  land,  the  Elector  receded 
somewhat  from  his  friendly  position  to  Protestantism. 
However,  after  the  Interim  was  lifted  by  the  peace  of 
Augsburg,  which  made  Protestantism  a  legal  religion 
in  Germany,  he  again  became  friendly  to  Protestantism. 
He  opened,  on  the  11th  of  November,  1555,  the  Au- 
gustinian  convent  as  the  Sapienz  college  for  the  study  of 
the  liberal  arts  or  humanism.  This  Sapienz  college 
afterwards  became  the  institution  for  the  education  of 
ministers.  To  this  school  he  called  the  ablest  professors, 
among  them  the  famous  Olympia  Morata,  a  marvel  of 
scholarship  and  learning.  She  could  speak  Latin  and 
Greek  as  fluently  as  her  mother  tongue.     Driven  out  of 


132         THE    REFORMED   CHURCH    OF   GERMANY. 

Italy  because  she  became  a  Protestant,  she  came  to  Hei- 
delberg with  her  husband,  Grunder,  where  he  taught 
medicine,  while  she  lectured  to  the  students.  She  died 
in  1555,  leaving  a  beatiful  testimony  when  dying,  ^' I 
distinctly  behold  a  place  filled  with  ineffiible  light."  A 
monument  to  her  memory  was  placed  in  St.  Peter's 
church.*  The  following  year  the  Elector  died.  But 
just  before  he  died,  he  professed  the  Protestant  faith  by 
receiving,  together  with  his  wife,  the  Protestant  com- 
munion. 

Otto  Henry,  the  new  Elector,  was  a  great  favorite 
among  the  people.  He  was  a  decided  adherent  of  Prot- 
estantism, having  already  introduced  it  into  his  little 
duchy  of  Neuberg,  over  which  he  ruled  before  he  be- 
came Elector.  He  was  a  wise  prince,  and  was  called 
the  Magnanimous.  He  was  ardently  devoted  to  educa- 
tion. He  endowed  the  university,  saying  he  would  do 
so,  if  it  took  his  last  penny.  He  founded  five  profes- 
sorships of  the  liberal  arts.  And  he  was  as  active  in 
religious  affairs  as  he  was  in  education.  He  thoroughly 
introduced  Lutheranism  into  the  Palatinate.  But  his 
Lutheranism  was  of  the  mild  Melancthonian  type.  His 
reformation  was  very  much  after  the  type  of  Wurtem- 
berg.  There  Lutheranism  had  been  tinctured  by  the 
simplicity  of  Zwinglian  customs      Otto  Henry   ordered 

*4n  interesting  novel,  entitled  Olympia  Morata,  has  been 
written  about  her  by  one  of  the  Professors  of  Heidelberg  uni- 
versity, under  the  pseudonyme  of  Geo.  Taylor. 


ELECTOR    OTTO    HENRY.  133 

statues  and  pictures  to  be  put  out  of  the  churches,  ex- 
ce})t  one  crucifix  in  the  church  of  the  Holy  Ghost  at 
Heidelberg.  He  put  away  all  side  altars,  but  allowed 
the  main  altar  to  remain  in  each  church.  Exorcism  was 
abolished.  The  Lord's  supper  was  celebrated  in  a  sim- 
ple style.  The  minister  was  not  allowed,  during  conse- 
cration, to  turn  his  back  to  the  people,  as  the  priests 
did ;  but  he  had  to  keep  his  face  toward  the  people. 
This  modification  of  worship  was  made  after  the  model 
of  the  Wurtemberg  Church-order,  which  had  been 
affected  by  the  Zwinglianism  of  neighboring  Switzer- 
land. Otto  Henry's  little  principality  of  Neuberg  was 
on  the  borders  of  Wurtemberg,  and  he  simply  brought 
its  rites  into  the  Palatinate.  Lasco,  too,  first  in  1548 
and  again  in  1554,  seems  to  have  given  Otto  Henry 
advice  about  the  introduction  of  the  reformation  into 
his  land.  Thus  Otto  Henry  was  insensibly  influenced 
in  the  direction  of  the  Reformed  Church.  Brenz's  cat- 
echism, which  was  mildly  Lutheran,  was  used  by  him. 
Melancthon  came  to  visit  and  aid  him,  when  he  was  at 
the  conference  of  Worms  in  1557.  Otto  Henry  organ- 
ized a  consistory  consisting  of  Diller  his  court  preacher, 
Ehem  and  Erastus.  Afterward  Hesshuss  was  added, 
because  he  was  the  superintendent.  Thus,  while  Otto 
Henry  was  organizing  the  churches  of  his  land,  he  was, 
unknown  to  himself,  preparing  his  land  for  the  intro- 
duction of  the  Reformed   faith.      He  did  this  by  intro- 


]34         THE    REFORMED   CHURCH    OF   GERMANY. 

duciDg  a  simple  mode  of  worship,  more  like  the  Re- 
formed than  the  high  Lutheran.  He  also  aided  by 
calling  to  his  land  so  many  foreign  teachers,  some  of 
them  Reformed.  He  appointed  Boquin,  who  was  Re- 
formed, as  professor  in  the  university.  But  the  most 
ardent  adherent  of  Zwingli  at  Heidelberg  was  Erastus, 
who  was  the  physician  to  the  Elector.  He  labored 
incessantly  to  have  Zwinglians  appointed  to  the  chairs 
of  the  university,  and  as  he  had  the  ear  of  the  Elector, 
his  influence  had  great  weight.  Otto  Henry  called 
Marbach  from  Strasburg  to  be  superintendent  of  his 
churches.  And  as  he  would  not  accept,  he  then,  upon 
Melancthon's  suggestion,  appointed  Hesshuss  to  that 
office.  He  did  not  know  what  a  firebrand  he  was  cast- 
ing into  his  own  camp  by  this  appointment  of  Hesshuss. 
When  Hesshuss  arrived,  he  found  that  the  prevailing 
type  of  Lutheranism  at  Heidelberg  was  Melancthonian. 
This  was  not  to  his  high  Lutheran  taste  ;  so  he  began 
to  introduce  high  Lutheran  customs,  as  the  wearing  of 
white  robes  by  the  ministers,  and  the  decorating  of  the 
altars.  He  also  introduced  high  Lutheran  ministers  into 
positions  in  the  Palatinate  Of  course  there  was  fric- 
tion, and  controversy,  and  trouble.  In  the  midst  of  all 
these  efforts  of  Hesshuss  to  introduce  high  Lutheranism, 
Otto  Henry  died,  and  the  conflict  between  the  high 
Lutherans  and  the  Melancthonians  was  carried  over  to 
the    next   reign.      Elector   Otto    Henry   died    greatly 


ELEC:T()R    FREDERICK    III.  135 

laaiented  by  his  devoted  people.  He  had  an  idea  that 
his  house  was  an  unluclvy  one,  and  so  did  not  marry 
again,  because  he  wanted  it  to  die  with  him.  He  thought 
because  his  ancestor  Elector  Lewis  III.  of  the  Palatinate 
had  led  John  Huss  to  his  funeral  pyre,  that  a  curse  was 
hanging  over  his  family.  So  he  deemed  it  better  for 
his  land  that  his  unlucky  family  should  die  out,  and 
that  the  Palatinate  should  fall  to  another  branch  of  the 
family.  After  his  death  the  Palatinate  fell  to  the  Sim- 
mern  branch  of  the  ftimily,  who  had  ruled  a  little  part 
of  it  at  the  northern  end  of  Lower  Palatinate.  And 
Frederick,  duke  of  Simmern,  became  Elector  Frederick 
III.  of  the  Palatinate. 

Frederick  III.,  called  the  Pious,  was  one  of  the 
most  religious  princes  that  ever  lived.  He  was  a  wise 
ruler  of  his  land,  a  devoted  adherent  to  his  Church. 
He  himself  was  the  best  exponent,  as  well  as  patron,  of 
the  truths  of  his  Heidelberg  Catechism.  Becker  calls 
him  '  the  Josiah'  of  the  Palatinate  people.  He  was 
worthy  of  the  honor  of  being  the  founder  of  the  Re- 
formed Church  in  Germanv. 

He  was  born  February  14,  1515,  at  Simmern.  His 
father,  Duke  John  II.  of  Pfalz-Simmern,  was  an  ardent 
supporter  of  the  Catholic  faith,  and  zealously  trained 
up  his  children  in  that  religion.  Frederick  was  raised 
at  the  courts  of  strict  Catholic  rulers,  the  Cardinal  of 
Lorraine,  the  Bishop  of  Liege,  and  also  of  the  Emperor 


136         THE    REFORMED    CHURCH    OF    GERMANY. 

Charles  V.  of  Germany,  who  had  persecuted  the 
Protestants  with  fire  and  sword.  Frederick  came  in 
contact  with  Harden  berg  at  Louvain,  and  from  him 
received  the  first  impressions  toward  evangelical  truth. 
The  scandals  of  the  priests  at  Metz  and  Liege  were  not 
unknown  to  him,  and  lessened  the  influence  of  the  Rom- 
ish Church  over  him.  But  he  owed  his  conversion  to 
Protestantism  to  his  wife,  a  Protestant  princess  of  Bran- 
den  berg- Baireuth,  whom  he  married  in  1537.  She 
brought  him  Luther's  teachings,  and  made  him  promise 
to  read  his  Bible  and  to  consider  religious  questions. 
However,  as  long  as  his  father  lived,  he  did  not  openly 
declare  for  Protestantism.  The  death  of  his  son,  Her- 
man Lewis,  by  drowning  at  Bourges  in  France,  made  a 
deep  impression  on  his  heart  and  still  further  developed 
his  religious  impressions.  Elector  Otto  Henry  saw  in 
Frederick  his  successor  to  the  throne  of  the  Palatinate ; 
and  that  he  might  be  prepared  for  that  position,  he  ap- 
pointed Frederick  his  governor  in  the  Upper  Palatinate. 
From  this  position,  after  the  death  of  Elector  Otto 
Henry,  he  came  to  Heidelberg  to  reign  as  Elector. 
When  he  arrived  at  Heidelberg,  he  found  that  matters 
had  come  to  a  crisis.  There  were  three  religious  par- 
ties there — the  high  Lutheran  party,  led  by  Hesshuss, 
supported  by  Councillor  Erasmus  of  Yenningen  and 
Chancellor  Minkwitz ;  the  Melancthonians,  consisting 
of  Otto  Henry's  court  preacher  Diller,  the  Count  of  Er- 


REASONS    FOR    FREDERICK'S    CONVERSION.        137 

bach,  and  Chancellor  Probus ;  the  Zwinglians  were 
Erastus,  Councillor  Ehera,  and  Klebitz ;  while  still  a 
fourth  party  was  beginning  to  appear  called  Calvinists, 
and  headed  by  Boquin.  Matters  could  not  remain  long 
in  this  condition  with  such  a  variety  of  conflicting  ele- 
ments. There  must  be  a  fusion  of  some  of  the  parties, 
which  indeed  did  take  place.  The  Zwinglians,  Calvin- 
ists and  Melancthonians  were  driven  together  by  the 
mad  fanaticism  of  Hesshuss,  the  high  Lutheran  zealot. 

Three  things  led  Elector  Frederick  III.  into  the 
Reformed  Church.  The  first  was  the  bigotry  and  per- 
secution of  the  high  Lutherans.  He  had  become  dis- 
gusted by  them  at  the  previous  conferences  of  the  princes 
for  union,  and  he  had  been  disheartened  by  the  egotism 
and  fanaticism  of  Hesshuss.  He  was  driven  out  of  the 
Lutheran  Church  by  the  Lutherans  themselves.  The 
second  reason  was  the  reaction  that  came  after  the  Naum- 
berg  Conference.  At  that  Conference  the  German  prin- 
ces signed  the  Unaltered  Augsburg  Confession,  but  al- 
lowed the  interpretation  of  it  in  a  Melancthonian  sense. 
After  that  Conference,  the  princes,  one  by  one,  rapidly 
retired  from  their  allegiance  to  its  decrees  and  left  Fred- 
erick, who  had  become  the  leader  of  the  Melancthonian 
party,  standing  almost  alone.  After  such  a  desertion, 
what  could  he  do  but  go  over  to  the  Reformed  Church  ? 
The  third  reason  was,  that  just  then,  in  the  nick  of 
time,  foreign  teachers,  either  Zwinglians  or  Calvinists, 
10 


138         THE    REFORMED    CHURCH    OF   GERMANY.       ' 

came  into  his  land  to  offer  this  new  faith  to  the  dis- 
heartened Elector.  Thus  Frederick  glided  into  the  Re- 
formed Church.  These  were  the  general  influences,  that 
led  him  thus.  But  there  were  also  particular  steps  in 
his  course.  No  man  comes  to  great  decisions  in  his  life 
without  degrees  of  preparation.  It  will  be  interesting 
to  notice  the  particular  steps  by  which  Frederick  and 
the  Palatinate  were  led  to  Calvinism. 

Already  before  Frederick's  accession  to  the  throne, 
in  Otto  Henry's  reign,  an  event  had  occurred  that  fore- 
shadowed the  coming  troubles.  Otto  Henry  was  the 
patron  of  the  fine  arts.  He  it  was,  who  built  the  mag- 
nificent Otto  Henry's  building  in  the  castle  at  Heidel- 
berg, which  has  outlasted  three  destructions,  and  is  a 
marvel  of  beauty  even  in  ruins.  Otto  Henry,  in  1558, 
just  before  his  death,  wanted  to  erect  a  monument  to  the 
memory  of  his  wife  and  of  himself  in  the  church  of  the 
Holy  Ghost  at  Heidelberg.  This  monument  he  wanted 
to  have  made,  like  his  building  in  the  castle,  after  the 
style  of  the  Renaissance,  which  was  a  revival  of  Greek 
and  Roman  art.  But  the  artist's  design  for  this  monu- 
ment mingled  Pagan  with  Grecian  ideas,  very  much  as 
they  are  mingled  in  the  Otto  Henry's  building  at  the 
castle,  where  Samson  is  offset  by  Hercules,  &c.  And 
the  nudeness  of  the  figures,  as  well  as  the  paganism, 
suggested  by  this  monument,  gave  offense.  In  the  art- 
ist's designs,  seven  virgins,  nude  to  the  hips,  with  flam- 


BREACH    BETWEEN    THE    PARTIES.  139 

ing  torches,  stood  in  the  plinth  beneath  the  statue  of  the 
Elector.  Opposite  them  was  a  procession  of  angels, 
who  were  represented  by  unclothed  youths.  The  idea 
was  a  beautiful  one.  The  maidens,  with  their  torches, 
represented  affliction ;  and  the  angels,  with  palm 
branches,  represented  victory  over  affliction  and  com- 
fort from  above.  But  Klebitz,  one  of  the  preachers  of 
the  Holy  Ghost  church,  who  was  a  believer  in  Zwing- 
lian  simplicity  ;  and,  like  the  Swiss,  opposed  to  statues 
and  pictures  in  churches,  opposed  the  introduction  of 
such  a  monument  into  the  church,  especially  as  there 
were  nude  figures  on  it.  Hesshuss,  with  his  Lutheran 
disregard  for  images  and  pictures  (which  were  allowed 
in  Lutheran  churches),  sided  with  the  Elector.  Hess- 
huss hoped,  by  aiding  the  Elector,  to  gain  more  influ- 
ence over  him.  But,  to  his  surprise,  the  cautious  Otto 
Henry,  rather  than  give  offense,  did  not  carry  out  his 
plan.  Instead  of  an  elaborate  monument,  he  ordered 
only  a  simple  bust  to  be  placed  in  the  church. 

One  thing  led  to  another.  One  event  followed  an- 
other, to  widen  the  breach  between  the  high  Lutherans 
and  the  other  parties.  This  conflict  between  Klebitz 
and  Hesshuss  was  only  the  beginning  of  the  end.  A 
pious  teacher  of  Edenkoben,  Bernard  Hexamer  by 
name,  through  the  study  of  the  mystics,  was  led  to  lay 
great  stress  on  the  inner  life  and  experience  of  the  be- 
liever.    He  said  "God's  words  are  worthless,    unless 


140         THE   KEFORMED   CHURCH    OF   GERMANY. 

the  inner  word  of  God,  through  the  Spirit,  entered  man's 
heart/'  And,  as  Hexamer  did  not  play  the  part  of  a 
sycophant  to  this  Protestant  pope,  Hesshuss,  he  was  or- 
dered to  come  to  Heidelberg  to  be  examined  about  his 
orthodoxy.  There  Hesshuss  charged  him  with  being 
"a  Schwenkfelder."  And,  in  his  examination,  Hesshuss 
so  distorted  Zwinglianism,  that  Klebitz  protested  against 
his  words.  Hexamer  was  deposed  and  left  the  country. 
But  this  event  widened  the  breach  between  the  Luther- 
ans and  Zwinglians.  The  next  event  that  still  further 
separated  them,  was  the  attempted  introduction  of  new 
hymn  books  and  of  new  ceremonies.  Hesshuss  wanted 
the  Bonn  hymn-book,  which  had  been  prepared  by  Me- 
laucthon  and  Bucer,  to  be  dispensed  with ;  and  Luther's 
hymn-book  to  be  introduced  instead.  He  also  wanted 
Brenz's  catechism,  which  had  been  prepared  by  Brenz 
in  his  earlier  days,  when  he  was  Melancthonian,  to  be 
put  away,  and  Luther's  catechism  to  be  introduced. 
Without  even  asking  the  consistory,  he  declared  that 
the  Bonn  hymn  book  and  the  Brenz  catechism  were  dis- 
pensed with.  This  act  brought  him  into  collision  with 
the  consistory  With  the  introduction  of  Luther's  hymn- 
book  and  catechism,  he  also  tried  to  introduce  high 
Lutheran  ceremonies.  These  were  hitherto  unknown 
in  the  Palatinate,  which,  like  Wurtemberg,  had  always 
been  low  Lutheran  in  its  ceremonies.  At  the  commun- 
ion, instead  of  the  German  hymn  that  was  usually  sung, 


ANOTHER  BREACH  BETWEEN  THEM.      141 

a  choir  of  boys  sang  a  Latin  litany.  At  the  consecra- 
tion of  the  elements  in  the  Lord's  supper,  Hesshuss 
turned  his  back  on  the  people,  as  if  acting  as  their  inter- 
cessor ;  instead  of  facing  the  people  in  the  prayer.  As 
he  went  around  with  the  elements,  two  scholars  in  sur- 
plices held  a  silk  cloth  beneath  them,  lest  any  of  the 
bread  and  wine  should  fall  on  the  floor.  And  if  not 
enough  of  the  elements  had  been  consecrated,  the  con- 
gregation had  to  wait  until  he  had  consecrated  more  by 
a  new  act  of  consecration.  Against  these  relics  of  pa- 
pacy, still  common  among  the  high  Lutherans,  Klebitz 
naturally  protested.  And  the  quarrel  became  so  bitter, 
that  the  Elector,  Otto  Henry,  though  sick  with  his  last 
illness,  was  compelled  to  interfere.  He  ordered  that  no 
new  ceremonies  should  be  introduced  during  the  winter. 
And  now  another  event  occurred  that  brought  the 
contest  into  the  university  as  well  as  in  the  church  and 
court.  A  young  theologian  of  the  Netherlands,  Sylvius 
of  Leuwaarden  in  West  Friesland,  had  a  call  from  a 
church  in  Groningen.  Before  he  entered  on  his  field 
of  labor,  he  wanted  to  take  the  doctor's  degree.  For 
that  purpose  he  came  to  Heidelberg.  Hesshuss,  the  de- 
kan  of  the  faculty,  had  the  audacity,  in  the  very  month 
that  Otto  Henry  died,  to  give  this  young  man  theses 
which  were  on  the  rejection  of  Zwinglianism.  He  aimed 
to  revive  the  controversy,  even  though  the  Elector  had 
forbidden  it,   and   was   now   dying.      Sylvius  being   a 


142         THE   REFORMED    CHURCH    OF   GERMANY. 

Netherlander,  naturally  upheld  the  Reformed  view  of 
the  sacraments.  Hesshuss  then  raged  against  him  as  a 
godless  Calvinist  and  a  semi-papist.  And  as  Erastus 
(reminding  him  that  the  union  of  a  Calvinist  and  Pa- 
pist in  one  man  must  be  an  impossibility)  laughingly 
asked  him,  how  a  man  could  be  at  the  same  time  a  Lap- 
lander and  a  negro  :  Hesshuss  got  into  a  rage  and  gave 
vent  to  such  prelatic  insolence  that  the  whole  university 
rose  against  him  and  wanted  to  expel  him  from  the 
university  senate.  The  piide  and  insolence  of  Hesshuss 
was  shown  at  a  sitting  of  the  consistory  in  the  castle, 
when  he  dared  to  seat  himself  in  the  throne  of  the  ab- 
sent Elector ;  for  which  act  of  assumption  he  received 
the  nickname  of  Toleman  Geckhusen  or  Tilemen  Cox- 
comb. Just  at  this  critical  moment  Elector  Otto  Henry 
died.  Thus  Hesshuss,  by  his  tyranny  and  insolence, 
alienated  the  consistory,  the  court  and  the  university 
from  him.  The  steps  are  interesting ;  first  a  monument, 
then  a  schoolmaster,  then  a  scholar.  These  were  the 
successive  causes. 

The  new  Elector,  Frederick  III.,  when  he  entered 
on  his  reign,  tried  to  act  independently  in  religious  ques- 
tions. But  any  man  who  acted  independently  of  him, 
Hesshuss  called  his  enemy.  Frederick  was  finally  com- 
pelled to  take  sides.  But  in  the  meantime  he  was  com- 
pelled to  leave  Heidelberg  to  go  to  Augsburg,  and  be 
invested  with  the  electoral  hat  and  dignity.     During  his 


KLEBITZ   THESES.  143 

absence  he  left  the  Count  of  Erbach,  a  Melancthonian, 
as  temporary  governor.  The  university,  in  spite  of 
Hesshuss'  opposition,  granted  a  degree  of  doctor  in 
March,  1559,  to  Sylvius;  and  ordered  Hesshuss  to  be 
put  out  of  the  university  senate.  Hesshuss  became  an- 
gry and  left  town.  He  went  to  Wesel,  his  birth-place, 
to  help  the  Lutherans  against  the  Reformed  refugees, 
who  had  arrived  at  Wesel.  It  was  the  most  unfortu- 
nate thing  Hesshuss  could  do — to  thus  go  away  in  a 
huff.  He  had  better  stayed  at  home.  For  Klebitz 
took  advantage  of  his  absence  to  commit  the  university 
to  the  Reformed  faith.  Klebitz  determined  to  bring 
matters  to  a  crisis.  He  determined  to  commit  the  Pa- 
latinate to  the  Reformed  faith,  even  if  it  cost  him  his 
position.  Having  seen  the  past  tactics  of  the  high  Lu- 
therans, he  made  up  his  mind  that  nothing  short  of  a 
bold  open  confession  of  Calvinism  would  stop  the  tide 
of  high  Lutheranism.  He  determined  to  ask  the  uni- 
versity to  grant  him  the  master's  degree.  He  proposed 
for  disputation  seven  theses,  which  held  the  doctrines 
of  Calvinism.  If  the  university  pronounced  favorably 
to  his  theses,  it  would  then  commit  the  university  to 
Calvinism.  The  university  granted  him  his  degree  on 
April  15  ;  and  the  university  was  thus  committed  as  fa- 
vorable to  Calvinism.  Then  Hesshuss  came  back  from 
Wesel  and  took  in  the  situation.  He  stormed  against 
Klebitz  as  an  Arian  and  a  devil,   ■'  who  hoped  to  steal 


144         THE   REFORMED    CHURCH    OF   GERMANY. 

the  kernel  out  of  the  Lord's  supper."  From  the  pulpit 
Hesshuss  called  Klebitz  "a  wolf  in  sheep's  clothing,  a 
mixer  of  poison  and  a  robber  of  souls."  Klebitz  did 
not  debate  with  him,  but  sent  him  his  theses,  with  Bi- 
ble proofs,  for  examination.  Hesshuss  sent  them  to  the 
high  Lutheran  theologians  at  Jena,  Morlin  and  Stossel, 
for  examination.  He  wanted  the  university  at  Jena  to 
pronounce  against  them.  Then  began  at  Heidelberg  a 
terrible  pulpit  war.  Finally,  Count  Erbach  called  the 
preachers  together  and  besought  them,  with  tears  in  his 
eyes,  to  become  peaceful.  "God's  cause  was  not  fur- 
thered, but  disgraced  by  such  proceedings."  For  this 
act,  Hesshuss  called  the  Count  a  Calvinist  and  threat- 
ened to  excommunicate  him,  because  he  stopped  the 
cause  of  truth.  Erbach  then  sent  to  Augsburg  to  learn 
the  will  of  the  Elector  about  this  matter.  In  the  mean- 
time one  Sunday,  at  communion,  as  two  noblemen 
stepped  forward  to  receive  the  communion,  Hesshuss, 
considering  that  it  belonged  to  him  to  reach  them  the 
cup,  ordered  Klebitz  to  give  it  up  to  him.  This  Kle- 
bitz refused  to  do.  Then  Hesshuss  ordered  the  other 
preacher,  in  the  presence  of  the  congregation,  to  take 
the  cup  from  Klebitz's  hands.  This  Klebitz  would  not 
allow.  Thus  the  supper  of  peace  became  an  apple  of 
discord,  and  the  congregation  were  treated  to  the  sad 
sight  of  its  shepherds  quarreling  at  the  altar.*     Hess- 

*Herzog  pronounces  this  tale  an  exaggeration. 


HESSHUSS   IS   DISMISSED.  145 

huss  then,  from  the  pulpit,  excommunicated  Klebitz. 
While  this  ban  of  excommunication  was  hanging  over 
him,  Klebitz's  child  died  ;  and,  as  he  was  excommuni- 
cated, Hesshuss  refused  his  child  an  honorable  burial. 

In  the  midst  of  all  the  excitement  caused  by  this 
strife,  the  Elector  returned.  He  gathered  the  ministers 
together  and,  with  tears  in  his  eyes,  besought  them  to 
cease  their  quarrels.  He  lifted  the  excommunication  of 
Hesshuss  from  Klebitz,  and  restored  Klebitz  to  his 
former  place.  He  also  received  the  Lord's  supper ;  and 
it  is  noticeable  that  he  did  not  receive  it  from  Hesshuss, 
but  from  the  hands  of  Diller  and  Klebitz.  Then  Hess- 
huss turned  against  the  Elector.  And  finally  the  Elec- 
tor, to  quiet  matters,  had  to  dismiss  both  Hesshuss  and 
Klebitz,  the  leaders  of  the  two  parties.  But  it  is  no- 
ticeable that  Klebitz  received  a  favorable  recommenda- 
tion from  the  Elector ;  while  Hesshuss  did  not,  thus 
showing  with  whom  the  Elector  sympathized.*  After 
Hesshuss'  departure,  the  office  of  superintendent  was 
abolished.  Frederick,  in  order  to  support  his  position, 
sent  to  Melancthon  for  his  opinion.  Melancthon  sug- 
gested that  for  the  sake  of  peace,  the  leaders  in  the  strife 
be  sent  away.  He  suggested  as  a  formula  to  suit  all 
parties,  that  the  words  of  Scripture  be  used  as  given  in 
1  Cor.  10,  16  :  "The  cup  of  blessing  which  we  bless,  is 

*Hesshuss  was  deposed  seven  times  in  his  life,  and  at  last 
died  an  exile. 


146         THE   REFORMED   CHURCH    OF   GERMANY. 

it  not  the  coQimunion  of  the  blood  of  Christ ;  the  bread 
which  we  break,  is  it  not  the  communion  of  the  body  of 
Christ  ?"  But  this  advice  of  Melancthon  was  not  satis- 
factory to  the  high  Lutherans.  Still  it  had  great  weight 
among  the  people  of  the  Palatinate,  and  inclined  them 
to  side  with  the  Elector.  And  when  he  went  over  to 
the  Reformed  Church,  they  followed  him.  So  this  ad- 
vice of  Melancthon  aided  in  preparing  the  way  for  the 
Reformed  faith. 

The  Lutheran  princes  and  theologians  viewed  Fred- 
erick's course  with  alarm.  When  the  Duke  William 
of  Saxe- Weimar  was  to  be  married  to  the  daughter  of 
Frederick  III.,  the  theologians  determined  to  make  use 
of  the  wedding  to  bring  Frederick  back  to  the  Lutheran 
faith.  The  two  dukes,  John  Frederick  of  Saxe-Gotha, 
the  standard  bearer  of  high  Lutheran  ism,  and  his 
brother  William,  brought  their  court  preachers,  Morlin 
and  Stossel,  with  them  to  the  wedding.  They  hoped 
they  might  thus  prevent  the  Elector  from  separating 
himself  from  the  Lutheran  faith.  In  connection  with 
this  wedding,  a  religious  conference,  lasting  five  days, 
was  held  in  June,  1560.  Boquin  and  Erastus  were  the 
defenders  of  Frederick  III.  against  Morlin  and  Stossel. 
Boquin's  twenty-four  theses  were  Calvinistic,  being 
largely  identical  with  Klebitz'  theses,  which  Hesshuss 
had  previously  sent  to  Morlin  and  Stossel.  On  the  third 
day  of  the  disputation    the   Duke  of  Saxony  brought 


FREDERICK  REFORMS  HIS  LAND.       147 

twenty-four  counter  theses.  These  were  disputed  for 
two  days  more.  Both  sides  claimed  the  victory.  But 
an  unfortunate  impression  was  made  on  the  audience, 
when  Stossel  refused  to  dispute  with  Erastus,  because 
he  was  not  a  theologian,  but  a  doctor  of  medicine. 
Erastus  answered,  ^'  But  I  am  a  Christian."  Still, 
although  both  parties  claimed  the  victory,  the  victory 
really  lay  with  the  Palatines.  For  Stossel,  after  this, 
weakened  in  his  Lutheranism,  went  over  to  Melancthon- 
iauism,  finally  became  a  Crypto  Calvinist,  and  died  for 
that  faith. 

This  conference  settled  Frederick's  mind  in  favor  of 
Calvinism.  But  he  did  not  go  over  to  the  Reformed 
faith  until  after  the  Naumberg  Conference  in  1561, 
when  he  was  satisfied  that  there  was  no  peace  in  the 
Lutheran  Church.  With  his  wise  foresight  he  saw  that 
,the  departure  of  the  Duke  of  Saxony  from  the  city  of 
Naumberg,  as  a  protest  against  liberal  Lutheranism, 
was  a  prophecy  of  the  fall  of  Melancthonianism.  Still, 
in  going  over  to  Calvinism,  Frederick  claimed  that  he 
did  not  leave  his  Lutheran  faith  behind.  He  said  he 
had  subscribed  the  Augsburg  Confession,  and  still 
claimed  to  be  true  to  it.  But  everywhere  the  customs 
of  worship  were  changed.  The  simplicity  of  Reformed 
worship  was  introduced.  All  the  feasts  in  honor  of  the 
virgin  were  discontinued.  Altars,  baptismal  fonts,  waf- 
ers, Latin  singing  in  the  service,  and  pictures,  were  put 
out  of  the  churches  of  the  Palatinate.      Organs    were 


148         THE   REFORMED   CHURCH    OF   GERMANY. 

silenced  for  a  hundred  years.  Instead  of  altars,  caoie 
communion  tables ;  instead  of  wafers,  came  bread ;  in- 
stead of  fonts,  came  bowls.*  Frederick's  simplicity  of 
taste  and  of  court  life  prepared  him  for  the  simplicity 
ot  the  Reformed  faith.  Altars  were  put  away.  The  Re- 
formed Church  never  had  an  altar.  It  had  only  a  com- 
munion table.  Its  very  existence  seems  to  have  been  a 
protest  against  altars,  which  were  Papal  or  Lutheran. f 
Frederick  seems  to  have  been  especially  bitter  against 
baptismal  fonts  as  fostering  Papacy.  '^  Even  so  there 
is  an  opportunity  with  the  baptismal  fonts,  which  also 
have  heretofore  been  misused  for  all  idolatry  and  magic 
in  Papacy.^J 

Frederick  also  reformed  the  schools.  The  Sapienz 
College  was  changed  into  a  theological  seminary  for  the 
education  of  ministers.     A  new  consistory  was  formed, 

*  About  altars  and  baptismal  fonts  Frederick  wrote  to  his  ' 
son-in-law,  Duke  John  Frederick,  "I  would  rather  suffer,  yes, 
desire  from  my  heart,  that  all  altars,  not  only  in  the  Lower  Pa- 
latinate, but  everywhere  that  I  can  command,  should  be  done 
away  with,  without  injury  to  weak  consciences,  then  would  I 
be  much  farther  separated  from  the  Pope  and  his  crime.  It  is 
not  enjoined  or  commanded  to  all  Christians  in  the  word  of  God, 
even  to  baptize  in  stony  coffins  (fonts) ;  but  with  water  is  one  to 
be  baptized,  it  may  be  standing  or  flowing.  And  truly  none  of 
the  apostles  and  disciples  of  Christ  baptized  in  a  coffin  of  stone." 

fFrederick,  in  his  letter  of  October  3,  1565,  says,  "There  are 
still  remaining  here  and  there  many  idolatries :  altars,  cruci- 
fixes, baptismal  fonts  and  other  idolatrous  things  ;"  and  the  ap- 
pended command  requires  that  "all  feasting  in  the  church 
should  be  put  away,  so  that  it  may  not  be  used  any  more  for 
idolatry."— Wolter's  Heidelberg  Catechism,  138,  note. 

JSudhoflf,  Olevianus  and  Urainus,  140,  note. 


Frederick's  strict  laws.  149 

consisting  of  Olevianus,  Boquin,  Tossanus,  Erastus, 
Marius,  Haekel,  with  Zuleger  as  president.  Frederick 
also  gave  close  attention  to  the  moral  and  business  wel- 
fare of  his  land.  His  police  orders  are  called  "a  Christ- 
ian police  regulation"  in  their  title.  On  Sundays  and 
prayer  days  every  one  was  ordered  to  go  to  church,  ex- 
cept in  case  of  sickness.  The  city  was  divided  into 
quarters ;  and  the  minister,  assisted  by  one  elder,  attended 
to  each  district.  The  new  comers  were  thus  found  and 
examined  in  their  faith.  During  the  church  service  all 
walking  in  parks,  lanes  or  to  taverns,  was  forbidden. 
Profanity,  debauchery,  tippling  and  soothsaying  were  for- 
bidden. The  mocking  of  persons  going  to  church  was 
fined  with  thirty  kreutzers.  Yearly  each  family  was  to 
be  visited,  so  as  to  be  prepared  for  the  holy  communion. 
Such  morality  always  produces  prosperity.  The 
Palatinate  bloomed  as  it  had  never  done  before.  The 
suppression  of  the  convents  brought  in  a  large  revenue, 
while  Frederick's  court  expenses  were  small.  The 
money  from  the  sale  of  the  convents  was  applied  to 
schools,  churches  and  charities.  The  waste  places  of 
the  laud  were  settled.  The  coming  of  the  persecuted 
refugees  from  Holland  and  France  brought  prosperity 
with  them.  Industry  flourished.  But  the  crowning 
act  of  Frederick  III.  was  the  publication  of  the  Hei- 
delberg Catechism.  Before,  however,  describing  its 
composition,  it  will  be  necessary  to  describe  the  two 
men  who  wrote  it — Olevianus  and  Ursinus. 


CHAPTER  II.— SECTION  II. 


The  Authors  of  the  Heidelberg  Catechism,  Ursinus  and        , 
Olevianus.  i 

ZACHARIAH  URSINUS.  i 

I 
Zachariah  Ursinus  was        ! 

born  July  18th,    1534,  at        I 

Breslau,  the  chief  city  of        ' 

Silesia.      His   father  had        ■ 

been  the  teacher  of  Sigis- 

mund  Pucher,  a   man  of 

influence  in  that  city.    He 

was  also  dekan  or  assistant 

preacher  of  the  Magdalene         \ 

Church,  and  later  professor  of  theology  in  the  St.  Eliza-         j 

beth  School  of  Breslau.     The  name  of  the  family  had         ' 

been  Bar  (bear) ;  but,  according  to  the  custom  of  the  age, 

the  name  had  been   latinized   into  Ursinus.     When  16 

years  of  age,  Ursinus  set  out  for   Wittenberg  to  attend  | 

the  University.     Here  he  became  the  devoted  scholar  of 

Melancthon.     He  came  to  Wittenberg  after   Luther's 

death,  when  Melancthon's  milder  theology   had  taken  [ 

the  place  of  Luther's  sharper  polemics.*     After  a  course  | 

( 

— • ■ — — — , —  I 

*For  a  description  of  Ursinus'  school  days  at  Wittenberg,  see  ! 

Crato  of  Kraflftheim,  I.,  page  99.  i 


HIS    EDUCATION.  151 

in  mathematics,  philosophy  and  theology  (supported  by 
his  uncle),  he  set  out  to  travel  and  complete  his  educa- 
tion. He  followed  Melancthon  to  Worms,  and  then 
went  with  him  to  Heidelberg.  Then  he  traveled  through 
Strasburg  to  Switzerland,  where  he  became  acquainted 
with  the  leading  men  of  the  Reformed  Church.  He  trav- 
eled through  Basle  and  Lausanne  to  Geneva ;  ^vhere  Cal- 
vin, seeing  his  abilities,  presented  him  with  a  set  of  his 
works.  From  Switzerland  he  went  through  Lyons  and 
Orleans  to  Paris,  that  he  might  study  French  and  Hebrew. 
He  then  returned  to  Zurich,  where  he  was  especially  inti- 
mate with  the  rector  of  ^  the  school  of  the  church  of  our 
Lady,'  the  Hebraist,  John  Friese.  He  also  met  Peter 
Martyr,  who  had  come  thither  from  England  and  Stras- 
burg, and  who  was  destined  to  exert  so  great  an  influ- 
ence on  his  after-life.  Returning  to  Wittenberg  through 
Tubingen,  Ulm  and  Nuremberg,  before  he  had  time  to 
settle  down  to  study,  he  was  called  by  the  city  council 
of  Breslau,  his  native  city,  to  come  home  and  teach  in 
the  St.  Elizabeth's  School  as  the  fourth  professor.  There 
it  fell  to  his  lot  to  give  a  sketch  of  doctrine  ;  for  which 
purpose  Melancthon's  'Common  Places'  were  used  as  a 
text  book.  He  used  the  later  edition  of  this  work, 
which  expressed  Melancthon's  milder  views  of  theology. 
The  city  of  Breslau  had  been  a  Melancthonian  strong- 
hold, but  some  high  Lutherans  had  come  in.  They  be- 
gan to  declaim  against  Ursinus,  charging  him   with  de- 


152         THE    REFORMED   CHURCH   OF    GERMANY. 

parture  from  the  true  Lutheran  faith.  Ursinus'  per- 
sonal acquaintance  with  some  of  the  leading  Reformed 
theologians  also  exposed  him  to  their  suspicion.  To 
justify  himself  against  the  charge  that  he  was  not  teach- 
ing pure  Lutheranism,  he  published  his  first  book, 
*' Theses  on  the  doctrine  of  the  sacraments."  Melanc- 
thon  was  very  much  pleased  with  the  book  and  compli- 
mented Ursinus  highly.  But  the  high  Lutherans  at- 
tacked the  book  and  its  author.  Morenberger,  a  mem- 
ber of  the  council  and  a  Melancthonian,  wrote  to  Wit- 
tenberg to  Melancthon  for  advice.  Adam  Cureus,  the 
church  inspector,  went  to  Wittenberg,  visited  Pencer 
and  asked  him  to  intercede  with  his  father-in-law  Me- 
lancthon, that  he  might  try  and  stop  the  conflict  at  Bres- 
lau.  Ursinus  remained  at  Breslau  two  years ;  and  then, 
in  1560,  he  resigned  his  position  on  account  of  the  op- 
position of  the  high  Lutherans.  He,  however,  promised 
the  city  council,  who,  against  the  wish  of  the  ministers, 
desired  him  to  remain,  that  he  would  return  again  when 
they  wished  it.  When  he  was  about  leaving,  his  uncle. 
Roth,  asked  him  whither  he  was  going.  He  answered : 
"  Not  unwillingly  do  I  leave  my  fatherland,  when  it 
will  not  suffer  the  confession  of  truth,  which  I  cannot 
surrender  with  a  good  conscience.  If  my  best  father, 
Phillip  (Melancthon),  still  lived  (Melancthon  had  just 
died,  seven  days  before),  I  would  go  nowhere  but  to 
him.     Now  that  he  is  dead,  I  will  go  nowhere  but  to 


URSINUS   GOES   TO   ZURICH.  153 

the  Zurich  theologians.  Tliey  are  pious,  learned,  great 
men,  with  whom  I  have  already  resolved  to  spend  my 
life.  God  will  provide  the  rest/'  These  words  show 
his  relation  to  Melancthon  and  to  the  Zurich  theologi- 
ans. Manifestly  among  the  dead,  none  stood  nearer  to 
liim  than  Melancthon ;  and  among  the  living,  none 
nearer  than  the  Zurich  theologians.  When  he  left 
Breslau,  his  dear  friend  and  bosom  companion,  Crato  of 
Krafftheim,  city  physician  of  Breslau,  filled  his  purse, 
and  was  afterwards  Ursinus'  constant  correspondent. 
Ursinus  left  Breslau  with  the  intention  of  beginning 
again  his  theological  studies.  When  he  arrived  at  Wit- 
tenberg, his  friends  desired  him  to  stay  there,  where, 
perhaps,  he  might  have  risen  to  be  the  successor  of  Me- 
lancthon. He  was  one  of  Melancthon's  favorite  pupils  ; 
and  Melancthon's  party,  after  his  death,  greatly  needed 
a  theological  leader.  But  affairs  at  the  University  of 
Wittenberg  had  all  been  disarranged  by  Melancthon's 
death  ;  and  Ursinus  clearly  foresaw  the  future  conflicts 
with  the  high  Lutheranism  and  its  probable  victory  at 
Wittenberg.  So  he  refused  their  invitation  to  stay  at 
Wittenberg,  and  hastened  to  Zurich.  When  he  came  to 
Zurich,  he  became  the  close  follower  of  Peter  Martyr, 
who,  from  that  day,  took  Melancthon's  place  in  Ursi- 
nus' heart.  From  the  school  of  Melancthon  he  now 
went  over  to  the  school  of  Martyr.  Peter  Martyr  was 
11 


154         THE    REFORMED    CHURCH    OF    GERMANY. 

a  strong  predestinarian,*  and  he  greatly  influenced  Ur- 
sinus  in  that  direction.  Ursinus,  in  order  to  come  to  a 
decision  about  the  doctrine  of  predestination,  read  the 
Bible  through  from  beginning  to  end  ;  and  after  he 
found  this  doctrine  established  in  God's  word,  he  held 
it  unwaveringly  the  rest  of  his  life.f  Ursinus  had  left 
his  Melancthonianism  so  far  behind  him,  that  when 
Martyr  wrote  an  answer  to  Brenz,  Ursinus  greatly  re- 
joiced at  Martyr's  answer  to  that  Lutheran  leader  of 
Wurtemberg,  Now  it  happened  that  while  Ursinus  was 
staying  at  Zurich,  Peter  Martyr  received  an  urgent  call 
from  Elector  Frederick  III.  of  the  Palatinate  to  come 
to  Heidelberg  as  Professor  of  theology  in  the  Univer- 
sity. But  Peter  Martyr  felt  unwilling  to  do  so.  He 
had  just  declined  a  call  to  come  back  to  England,  and 
felt  he  could  not,  in  good  grace,  accept  a  call  to  Heidel- 
berg. He  also  foresaw  the  conflicts  which  would  come 
in  attempting  to  introduce  the  Reformed  faith  into  the 
Palatinate ;  and  as  he  was  an  old  man,  he  preferred  to 
spend  the  rest  of  his  days  in  peace  and  quietness.  So 
he  declined  the  call ;  but  recommended  Frederick  to 
call  Ursinus  in  his  stead.  At  the  earnest  solicitation  of 
Erastus,  Elector  Frederick  III.  then  invited  Ursinus  to 
come  to  Hei(ielberg.  Ursinus  foresaw  the  conflicts  that 
were  before  him  there  ;  and   being  of  a  very   retiring, 

*Sudhoflf,  Olevianus  and  Ursinas,  329,  note. 
fGoebel,  I.,  387;  Letters  of  1573  ;  Goebel,  I.,  389. 


HIS   CALL   TO    HEIDELBERG.  155 

shy  and  sensitive  disposition,  he  dreaded  going.  He 
once  gave  utterance  to  the  words :  **0,  that  I  could  re- 
main hid  in  a  corner  ;  I  would  give  anything  for  a  shel- 
ter in  some  quiet  village."  In  answer  to  this  call,  he 
went  to  Heidelberg  in  the  autumn  of  1561.  He  taught 
for  a  year  in  the  Sapienz  college  ;  and  there  his  clearness 
of  teaching  having  won  for  him  many  scholars,  he  was 
also  made  professor  of  theology  in  the  University  in  the 
place  of  Olevianus,  who  was  appointed  court  preacher 
of  the  Elector.  At  first  Ursinus  preached  occasionally. 
But  he  soon  gave  it  up,  as  his  vocation  was  that  of  a 
scholar  and  teacher,  rather  than  that  of  a  pastor  and 
preacher. 


156         THE    REFORMED   CHURCH    OF   GERMANY, 


CASPAR  OLEVIANUS. 


Caspar  Olevianus  was 
born  at  Olewig,  a  suburb 
of  Treves,  the  city  'of  the 
holy  coat  of  Christ/  He 
first  saw  the  light  on  Au- 
gust 10,  1536.*  He  re- 
ceived his  name  from  the 
place  of  his  birth  ;  but 
this  name,  according  to 
the  custom  of  the  time,  was  changed  and  latinized  into 
Olevianus.  His  father  was,  as  master  of  the  guild  of 
bakers,  a  member  of  the  city  council,  and  also  treasurer 
of  the  city.  His  mother,  Anna  Sinzig,  was  the  daughter 
of  the  master  of  the  butchers'  guild.  It  was  his  grand- 
father who  mainly  educated  Caspar  ;  as  he  was  his  pet 
grand-son.  To  his  mother,  who  seems  to  have  been  a 
woman  of  deep  religious  feeling,  he  owed  much  of  his  ten- 
dency toward  spiritual  things.  He  was  baptized  in  the 
church  of  St.  Lawrence.  He  attended  school  at  St.  Law- 
rence church  ;  also  at  St  Simeon's,  and  at  the  Cathedral 
school ;  and  then  entered  the  college  of  St.  Germain  at 
Treves.     Here,  at  the  early  age  of  thirteen,  his  religious 

*In  the  so-called  Wittlicher  House  in  the  moat  near  the  mar- 
ket. The  Elector  of  Treves  afterward  bought  it  (not,  however, 
because  of  any  love  for  Olevianus),  and  changed  it  into  a  court 
of  justice. 


157 


nature  was  deeply  stirred  by  the  Lenten  sermons  of  a 
pious  aged  monk.  The  religious  impulse  given  him  by 
this  old  priest  affected  his  whole  after-life,  and  ultimately 
led  him  to  the  gospel.  This  priest  seemed  to  have  been 
an  'evangelical/  for  he  bade  him  look  at  the  sacrifice  of 
Christ  as  the  only  ground  of  his  salvation.  Many  years 
after,  Olevianus  bore  testimony  to  the  impression  this 
priest  made  on  him.  In  1550,  at  fourteen  years  of  age, 
he  was  sent  to  France  to  complete  his  education  as  a 
lawyer.  He  studied  languages  at  Paris,  and  afterward 
studied  law  at  Orleans  and  Bonrges.  He  soon  joined 
those  secret  churches  of  France  called  the  ^churches  of 
the  cross' :  although  it  was  dangerous  to  join  them  at 
that  time. 

Thus  Olevianus  seemed  to  follow  in  the  footsteps  of 
Calvin  from  place  to  place — from  Paris  to  Orleans  and 
Bourges,  and  to  Geneva  afterward.  He  thus  followed 
in  Calvin's  path  locally,  as  well  as  spiritually.  Calvin 
had  studied  at  Bourges  in  1528,  and  there  met  Wolmar, 
who  called  Calvin  into  the  ministry  by  asking  him 
what  he  proposed  to  do  in  life.  Wolmar  urged  Calvin 
to  begin  preaching.  Others  also  asked  this  distinguished 
young  student  to  preach.  So  Calvin  began  preaching 
at  Bourges,  and* in  the  neighboring  towns,  as  Berry  and 
Liguieres.  Where  Calvin  had  been  called  into  the  min- 
istry, now  Olevianus  also  received  a  call  of  God  to 
preach  the  gospel,  only  it  came  in  a  different  way.     Cal- 


158         THE    REFORMED   CHURCH    OF   GERMANY. 

vin's  came  through  a  friend,  and  Olevianus'  through  a 
danger.  Sometimes  a  passing  incident  will  bring  men's 
lives  to  a  crisis  and  change  their  whole  after-career, 
Such  an  event  happened  to  Olevianus  at  Bourges,  in 
1556.  The  German  students  at  this  University  were 
naturally  brought  much  into  contact  with  each  other. 
Olevianus  contracted  a  close  friendship  with  the  lead- 
ing German  students,  and  especially  with  Prince  Her- 
man Lewis,  second  son  of  Count  Frederick  of  Simmern, 
afterward  Elector  Frederick  III.  of  the  Palatinate.  One 
day  while  Olevianus  and  the  prince  were  walking  along 
the  banks  of  the  Auron  river,*  they  met  some  German 
students  of  noble  birth.  These  asked  them  to  go  across 
the  river  in  a  boat,  although  some  of  the  young  princes 
were  somewhat  intoxicated.  Olevianus  tried  hard  to 
dissuade  Prince  Herman  from  going  with  them.  But 
the  prince,  with  his  court  master,  Nicolas  Judex,  went 
with  them  in  the  boat.  They  had  hardly  gotten  into 
the  middle  of  the  river,  before  these  half-drunken  stu- 
dents began  rocking  the  boat  from  side  to  side,  which 
tilted  them  over  and  threw  them  all  into  the  water,  to 
find  a  watery  grave.  Olevianus  saw  all  this  from  the 
shore,  where  he  was  standing.  He  threw  himself  into 
the  water  to  rescue  his  friend,  the  prince ;  but  in  the 
muddy  bottom  of  the  river  he  only  got  himself  into  the 

*Goebel  and  Seisen  call  it  the  Eure  ;  Sudhoff,   the  Auron. 
Bouiges  lies  at  the  junction  of  the  Eure  and  the  Auron. 


HIS   CALL   TO   THE   MINLSTRY.  159 

greatest  danger.  Thus  hanging  between  life  and  death, 
he  called  on  God  to  save  him.  And  he  vowed  that,  if 
God  would  save  him  from  death,  he  would  devote  him- 
self to  preaching  the  gospel  to  his  fatherland.  Just  in 
the  nick  of  time  a  servant  in  the  service  of  Prince  Her- 
man came  running  to  the  rescue.  He  caught  hold  of 
the  sinking  Olevianus,  thinking  he  was  the  prince.  And 
so  Olevianus  was  saved,  instead  of  the  prince.  This  as- 
sociation with  the  death  of  this  prince  afterward  proved 
a  very  fortunate  thing  for  Olevianus  ;  for  the  prince's 
father,  Frederick,  always  had  a  warm  side  for  Olevi- 
anus after  that ;  and  ultimately  Olevianus  became  his 
court-preacher  at  Heidelberg. 

Thus  Olevianus,  by  this  accident,  was  led  to  devote 
his  life  to  the  ministry.  It  is  true,  he  continued  the 
study  of  law  at  Bourges ;  but  his  heart  was  given  to 
the  study  of  God's  Word.  He  received  the  degree  of 
doctor  of  laws  at  Bourges  in  1557,  and  returned  to  his 
native  city  Treves  in  1558.  Louder  and  louder  came 
the  call  to  him  to  enter  the  gospel  ministry.  So,  to  pre- 
pare himself  for  it,  he  went  to  Geneva  to  study  with 
Calvin.  While  at  Geneva,  he  l)ecame  fully  acquainted 
with  the  Reformed  Church, — was  educated  in  her  bo- 
som. But  although  thus  educated  in  the  French  Re- 
formed Church,  he  felt  he  was  called  to  preach  the  gos- 
pel to  the  Germans  rather  than  to  the  French  ;  and  his 
heart  yearned  for  his  native  city  of  Treves.     To  tit  him- 


160         THE    REFORMED   CHURCH    OF   GERMANY. 

self  for  this  work  among  the  Germans,  he  went  to  Zu- 
rich in  German  Switzerland,  to  sit  at  the  feet  of  Peter 
Martyr.  But  he  soon  after  returned  to  Calvin  at  Ge- 
neva, to  complete  his  studies.  On  his  journey  to  Ge- 
neva he  met  that  fiery  reformer,  William  Farel.  This 
glowing  herald  of  the  gospel,  as  he  had  called  Calvin  at 
Geneva  to  labor  there,  now  urged  Olevianus  to  cut  short 
his  studies  and  to  return  to  Treves,  to  preach  there.  Ole- 
vianus refused  a  call  by  the  Reformed  church  of  Metz, 
so  that  he  might  proclaim  the  gospel  in  the  city  of  his 
birth.  He  knew  that  there  were  those  in  Treves  who 
were  favorable  to  the  gospel.  Through  the  influence  of 
the  reformation  at  Cologne,  and  also  in  the  neighboring 
Palatinate,  many  had  become  evangelical  at  Treves.  So 
he  urged  Calvin  to  write  to  Otto  Seel  and  Peter  Sierk, 
members  of  the  city  council  of  Treves,  who  were  known 
to  be  favorable  to  the  gospel.  True  to  his  vow  at  Bour- 
ges,  he  now  returned  to  Treves,  to  preach  the  gospel. 
Through  the  influence  of  his  friends  he  obtained  the  po- 
sition of  a  Latin  teacher  in  the  High  School  or  Bursa, 
an  endowed  school,  which  had  then  become  almost  ex- 
tinct. His  position  as  teacher  gave  the  opportunity  he 
desired,  to  infuse  the  gospel  of  Jesus  into  the  minds  of 
his  scholars.  It  was  his  duty  to  lecture  to  the  scholars 
on  the  dialectics  of  Melaiicthon.  These  were  filled  with 
Scripture  references,  and  thus  made  the  scholars'  minds 
familiar  with  the  Bible.     But  as  these  'dialectics'  were 


HE   PREACH  fi:S    AT   TREVES.  161 

in  Latin,  he  thought  they  would  make  more  progress  in 
Scriptural  truth,  if  he  taught  them  in  German.  He  be- 
gan lecturing  in  German  on  the  catechism.  And  his 
German  lectures  drew  many  of  the  citizens,  as  well  as 
the  scholars,  to  hear  him.  These  admirers  of  his,  finally 
desired  him,  though  a  layman,*  to  hold  divine  service. 
So  he  issued  a  public  call  to  evangelical  preaching,  and 
was  made  a  preacher  of  the  Word.  He  was  unordained, 
yet  he  preached  without  ordination,  as  did  many,  in  the 
days  of  the  reformation.  He  nailed  a  call  to  worship 
on  the  Steip  or  city  hall  of  Treves,  inviting  the  citizens 
to  an  evangelical  service  on  St.  Lawrence  day,  August 
10th,  between  the  hours  of  eight  and  ten  at  the  Bursa.f 
So  a  great  crowd  of  people,  instead  of  going  to  mass  that 
morning,  repaired  to  the  High  School,  to  hear  Olevi- 
anus.  Among  them  were  the  leading  men  of  the  place, 
as  the  leading  burgomaster,  John  Stuyss ;  and  Otto  Seel 
and  Peter  Sierk,  city  councillors.  Oleviauus  preached 
on  justification  by  faith,  and  also  against  the  worship  of 
saints,  masses,  and  against  processions,  for  which  the  city 
of  Treves  has  always  been  very  famous.  But  the  city 
clerk  was  present  at  this  service,  and  he  did  not  fail  to 
notify  the  Catholic  clergy  of  what  was  going  on.  The 
following  day  Olevianus  was  ordered  to  appear  before 
the  city  council.     The  council  had  in  it  many    members 

•■•Sudhoflf,  Olevianus  and  Ursinus,  page  47. 
fThe  city  liall  on  which  he  nailed  the  notice  is  the  present 
Rothes  Haus  in  the  market. 


162         THE    REFORMED    CHURCH    OF   GERMANY. 

who  were  favorable  to  Oleviauus  and  the  gospel ;  and 
they  finally  compromised  with  the  Catholics  b}'  allow- 
ing Olevianus  to  preach  anywhere,  except  in  the  Bursa, 
as  it  was  an  endowed  school,  and  its  funds  would  thus 
be  perverted.  They  allowed  him  to  teach  there,  but  or- 
dered him  to  use  Latin,  and  not  German,  in  his  teach- 
ing. Olevianus,  in  his  defence,  declared  that  he  would 
die  for  the  gospel,  if  it  were  necessary,  as  there  was 
nothing  that  his  fatherland  needed  so  much  as  the  Word 
of  God.  His  answer  reveals  the  true  martyr  spirit  and 
shows  his  consecration.  The  evangelical  citizens,  with 
burgomaster  Stuyss  at  their  head,  then  presented  a  re- 
quest to  the  council  that  they  be  allowed  to  worship  ac- 
cording to  the  Augsburg  confession,  which  liberty  was 
granted  by  the  Augsburg  Diet  of  1555.  The  Catholics 
answered  that  Treves  was  not  under  the  Emperor,  and 
hence  not  bound  by  that  Diet ;  but  that  it  was  under  its 
own  Elector,  and  he  forbade  it.  Had  Treves  been  a 
free  city  like  Strasburg,  and  not  been  under  the  control 
of  the  Elector  of  Treves,  it  would  have  had  a  right  to 
allow  Protestant  worship.  But  that  Augsburg  Diet  de- 
clared that  'Mike  prince,  like  people;"  as  the  prince 
was  a  bigoted  Catholic,  the  people  ought  to  be  so,  too. 
Still,  the  Protestants  hoped  to  be  able  to  maintain  their 
worship.  The  Catholics  then  answered  that  Olevianus 
was  not  an  adherent  of  the  Augsburg  confession,  but  a 
Calvinist.     Olevianus,  to  prove  that  he  was  an  adherent 


PROTESTANTISM    AT   TREVES.  163 

of  the  Augsburg  confession,  and  that  he  had  the  right 
to  preach,  signed  that  coufesrsion  no  le^s  than  three  times 
at  Treves,  even  under  oath.  So  Olevianus  began  preach- 
ing the  gospel  at  the  St.  Jacob's  church  in  the  Fleisch- 
gasse.  This  St.  Jacob's  church  was  not  under  the  con- 
trol of  the  clergy,  but  of  the  city,  whose  council  allowed 
him  to  preach  there.  This  church  soon  became  too 
small,  as  nearly  one-half  of  the  town  declared  themselves 
favorable  to  Protestantism.  Whole  guilds,  as  of  the 
weavers,  smiths  and  tailors,  supported  Olevianus.  The 
most  decided  guild  against  him  were  the  superstitious 
sailors,  who  sailed  the  boats  on  the  Moselle.  Among 
those  who  declared  themselves  won  by  his  preaching 
were,  to  his  great  joy,  his  two  brothers — the  one  a  gold- 
smith, and  the  other  a  physician. 

As  the  crowd  was  becoming  very  great,  and  the  dan- 
ger was  also  becoming  great,  the  evangelicals  sent  to  the 
Count  of  the  neighboring  Zweibriickeu,  whose  territo- 
ries adjoined  theirs,  for  help  and  protection.  They 
asked  the  Count  to  loan  them  a  preacher.  The  Count 
was  so  glad  to  hear  that  Treves  was  receiving  Protest- 
antism, that  he  sent  them  his  leading  minister,  the  su- 
perintendent Flinsbach,  to  aid  Olevianus  in  his  work  at 
Treves.  Flinsbach,  after  he  arrived  at  Treves,  wrote 
to  the  Count  that  not  only  was  the  altar  of  the  church 
full  of  people,  standing ;  but  even  the  windows  and  every 
place  w^here  the  people  could    hear.     In   the   meantime. 


164         THE   REFORMED   CHURCH   OF   GERMANY. 

however,  word  had  been  sent  from  Treves  to  the  Elector 
of  Treves  at  Augsburg,  acquainting  him  with  the  spread 
of  Protestantism  in  his  own  city.  When  he  returned, 
he  came  back  with  soldiers,  so  as  to  quell  this  uprising 
by  force.  But  although  he  came  with  170  cavalry,  the 
courage  of  the  Protestants  rose  with  their  danger.  Flins- 
bach,  being  under  the  protection  of  the  Count  of  Zwei- 
briicken,  sent  a  notice  to  the  Elector  that  these  Evan- 
gelicals were  under  the  protection  of  the  Augsburg  con- 
fession, which  had  been  made  legal  in  1555.  And  not 
only  was  it  the  Evangelicals  who  opposed  the  Elector, 
but  a  large  party  of  the  Catholics  opposed  him  ;  because 
when  he  came  with  troops,  they  felt  that  he  was  men- 
acing the  liberties  of  their  city.  The  Elector,  finding 
that  he  could  not  enter  the  city,  took  up  his  position  at 
Pfalzel,  three-quarters  of  a  mile  from  Treves.  From 
this  point  he  began  to  harass  the  citizens.  He  laid  waste 
the  fields  and  the  gardens  of  the  citizens,  and  even  tried 
to  cut  off  the  water  supply  of  the  city.  The  citizens, 
who  ventured  out  of  the  city  into  the  fields,  were  plun- 
dered ;  and  the  market  people,  who  brought  produce, 
were  kept  from  entering  the  city.  The  result  of  this 
petty  siege  was,  that  it  soon  became  uncomfortable  for 
those  who  were  in  the  city.  So  a  part  of  the  Catholic 
party  in  the  city  went  over  to  the  Elector.  On  October 
8th  the  Elector  sent  word,  that  if  the  Evangelicals  would 
send  him  20,000  dollars  and  leave  the  city,  he  would 


PROTESTANTS    DRIVEN    OUT.  165 

withdraw  his  troops.  This  was  adding  insult  to  injury, 
to  ask  money  of  them  in  addition  to  the  persecutions 
they  had  received.  They  claimed  that  they  were  pro- 
tected by  the  peace  of  Augsburg,  which  allowed  to  ad- 
herents of  the  Augsburg  confession  their  worship.  But 
the  Catholic  element  in  the  city  began  to  ferment.  Two 
trades,  the  sailors  and  coopers,  favored  the  Catholics. 
These  spent  days  and  nights  at  the  taverns,  spreading 
reports  unfavorable  to  the  Protestants.  But  the  Protest- 
ants were  not  idle.  They  sent  ambassadors  to  the  neigh- 
boring Protestant  princes,  as  Zweibriicken,  Hesse  and 
the  Palatinate,  asking  their  intercession  with  the  Elector 
and  their  aid.  Still,  as  time  passed  on,  the  Elector  suc- 
ceeded in  influencing  more  and  more  of  the  Catholic 
party  in  the  city  over  to  his  side,  so  that  at  last  he  was 
strong  enough  to  enter  the  city  and  quarter  his  soldiers 
on  the  Protestant  citizens.  Burgomaster  John  Stuyss 
was  placed  under  arrest,  and  Olevianus  and  Flinsbach 
were  summoned  before  the  council  to  answer  for  their 
conduct.  In  the  meantime  ambassadors  from  Zwei- 
brucken,  Hesse  and  the  Palatinate  arrived  to  intercede 
for  these  Protestants,  that  they  might  have  the  right  to 
worship  in  Treves,  because  they  were  Lutherans.  But 
the  Elector  raised  the  point,  that  they  were  not  Luther- 
ans, but  Calvinists,  as  Olevianus  had  been  educated  un- 
der Calvin.  So  Olevianus  and  twelve  others  were  put 
under  arrest ;  but  were  finally  allowed  to  leave  the  city. 


166         THE    REFORMED    CHURCH    OF    GERMANY. 

after  the  payment  of  a  fine  of  3,000  florins.  These  per- 
secuted Protestants  went  to  Strasburg,  and  to  the  neigh- 
boring Palatinate,  as  at  Beldenz,  Trarbach  and  Duse- 
mond. 

Thus  Protestantism  came  to  a  sad  end  at  Treves. 
Had  Treves  been  a  free  city,  like  its  neighbor  Stras- 
burg,  Protestantism  would  have  gained  the  city.  But 
Treves  was  the  seat  of  a  spiritual  elector,  and  the  Elec- 
tor of  Treves  crushed  out  the  reformation.  Had  Ole- 
vianus  appeared  in  Treves  twenty  years  earlier,  when 
the  former  Elector  of  Treves  with  the  Elector  of  May- 
ence  was  on  the  point  of  following  Elector  Herman  of 
Cologne  into  the  Protestant  camp,  great  results  would 
have  been  accomplished.  And  had  these  spiritual  Elec- 
tors of  Cologne,  Treves  and  Mayence  followed  the  tem- 
poral Electors  of  Saxony,  Palatinate  and  Brandenberg 
into  Protestantism  ;  the  next  Emperor  of  Germany,  whom 
they  would  have  elected,  would  have  been  a  Protestant, 
or  else  a  Catholic  favorable  to  Protestantism.  But  that 
opportunity  was  lost  when  Herman  of  Cologne  was  not 
supported  by  the  Lutheran  princes  and  so  lost  his  Elec- 
torate. After  this  persecution  of  1560,  Treves  became 
a  stronger  Catholic  city  than  ever.  The  Protestants 
were  driven  out,  and  the  Jesuits  came  in,  to  reclaim  it 
from  its  heresy.  Its  deliverance  from  heresy  is  still 
commemorated,  we  understand,  by  the  observance  of  the 
Olevianus  procession  on  Whitmonday,  whose  object  is 


EFFECT   IN    TREVES.  167 

to  thank  God  for  the  deliverance  of  the  city  from 
heresy  preached  by  Olevianus,  and  to  confirm  it  in  the 
Catholic  faith.  For  almost  250  years  no  Protestant 
service  was  allowed  in  Treves.  But  in  1817  a  Protest- 
ant church  was  opened,  the  first  sermon  being  preached 
by  Rev.  Dr.  Kupper,  then  general  superintendent  of  the 
Rhine  provinces.  His  congregation  numbered  1,500 
souls  in  1855.  By  a  curious  coincidence  this  Protestant 
congregation  worships  in  the  basilica  of  Constantine, 
where,  in  the  fourth  century,  before  Catholicism  had  yet 
come  to  Treves,  the  pure,  simple  faith  of  Christ  had 
been  preached.  The  Protestants  then  merely  re-intro- 
duced the  simple  faith  of  Constantine  to  Treves. 

Treves,  by  this  persecution,  lost  its  best  citizens  and 
artisans.  She  has  never  recovered  her  former  pros- 
perity. While  her  persecution  only  spread  the  flames 
of  the  gospel  to  other  places.  Most  of  the  refugees  went 
to  Strasburg  and  the  Palatinate,  but  one  of  them,  Heid- 
feld,  went  to  Wesel  in  1559,  where  he  aided  in  intro- 
ducing the  Reformed  faith.  Flinsbach,  being  in  the 
employ  of  the  Count  of  Zweibrucken,  was  sent  home 
safely  by  the  Elector  of  Treves.  He  had  labored  will- 
ingly with  Olevianus,  although  he  was  a  Lutheran  and 
Olevianus  a  Calvinist ;  for  he  was  a  Melancthonian. 
Flinsbach  finally  came  to  a  sad  end  eleven  years  later. 
As  he  was  returning  from  a  church  visitation  in  the 
county  of  Sponheim,  he  was  compelled  to   stop   over 


168  THE    REFORMED    CHURCH    OF    GERMANY. 

night  at  the  house  of  a  Catholic  priest.  This  priest  rec- 
ognized the  hated  Protestant  who  had  so  helped  the 
heretics  at  Treves,  and  poisoned  him.  He  was  hardly 
able  to  get  home  to  Zweibrucken,  when  he  died  and 
was  buried  in  the  Alexander  church.  Far  otherwise 
was  it  with  Olevianus.  He  remained  ten  weeks  in  prison, 
charged  with  setting  the  city  on  fire  with  false  doc- 
trines, and  also  charged  with  desiring  the  murder  of  the 
bishop.  The  neighboring  princes,  however,  interceded 
for  him.  Count  Wolfgang  of  Zweibrucken  was  very 
anxious  to  gain  him  for  his  land.  But  Elector  Fred- 
erick III.  of  the  Palatinate,  who  felt  under  personal  ob- 
ligations to  Olevianus  for  trying  to  save  the  life  of  his 
son  from  drowning  at  Bourges,  finally  secured  Olevi- 
anus' release,  and  called  him  to  be  professor  at  the  Sa- 
pienz  College  at  Heidelberg.  From  this,  Olevianus  was 
made  professor  of  theology  in  the  university.  As  pro- 
fessor of  theology  he  taught  Calvinism.  He  made  an 
extract  of  Calvin's  theology,  and  it  was  so  favorably  re- 
ceived, especially  by  Farel,  that  it  was  printed.  He 
aimed  to  bring  the  students  and  the  Palatinate  church 
over  to  full  Calvinism.  But  a  larger  field,  just  suited 
to  his  tastes,  soon  opened  to  him.  He  was  appointed 
a  member  of  the  consistory  and  court-preacher  in  1561, 
and  also  preacher  in  St.  Peter's  church  and  in  the  church 
of  the  Holy  Ghost  at  Heidelberg.  He  was  a  man  of 
great  executive  ability,  an  eloquent  preacher  and  a  fervid 


THE    TWO    AUTHORS. 


169 


writer.  Olevianus  was  a  strict  Calvinist,  and  so  was 
Ursinus  ;  only  Ursinus  was  better  acquainted  with  the 
various  phases  of  Lutheran  doctrines  in  Germany. 

These  were  the  two  men  selected  by  Elector  Fred- 
erick III.  to  compose  his  catechism.  In  many  respects 
they  complement  each  other.  The  one  a  scholar  and 
professor,  the  other  a  preacher  and  administrator;  the 
one  the  head,  the  other  the  heart,  of  the  catechism. 
Olevianus  and  Ursinus  were  mated  to  each  other  as  Da- 
vid and  Jonathan,  Peter  and  John,  Luther  and  Me- 
lancthon,  and  Zwingli  and  Ecolampadius,  the  one  com- 
plementing the  other.  The  compositions  of  both  are 
stronger  than  the  writings  of  either.  Both  were  young 
men  when  appointed  to  this  responsible  position  of  com- 
posing a  catechism.  Ursinus  was  28,  and  Olevianus  26 
years  of  age.  But  it  is  noticeable  that  the  great  theolog- 
ical writings  of  the  reformers  appeared  when  they  were 
young  men.  Genius  was  precocious  in  the  days  of  the 
reformation.  Thus,  Calvin  wrote  his  Institutes  at  the 
early  age  of  26,  and  Melancthon  his  '  Loci  Communes' 
at  24.  Says  a  writer,  of  Olevianus  and  Ursinus  :  "Be- 
cause of  their  youth  and  ripeness  of  intellect,  the  Hei- 
delberg catechism  united  the  warmth  of  first  love  with 
the  light  of  profound  depth  of  thought,  the  free  inspira- 
tion of  youth  with  the  riper  experience  of  mature  age." 
12 


CHAPTER  II.— SECTION  III. 

The  Heidelberg  Catechism  and  its  Composition. 

A  number  of  very  interesting  topics  come  up  in  con- 
nection with  the  composition  of  the  Heidelberg  Cate- 
chism. We  will  consider  them  under  five  heads :  A, 
the  aim  of  its  composition  ;  B,  the  previous  materials 
used  ;  C,  the  share  each  author  had  in  its  composition  ; 
D,  the  doctrinal  position  of  the  catechism  ;  E,  the  edi- 
tions and  translations  of  the  catechism. 

A. — The  Aim  of  its  Composition. 

Several  reasons  have  been  given  why  Frederick 
wanted  to  have  a  new  catechism.  One  reason  suggested 
was,  that  Frederick  hoped  by  this  catechism  to  unite 
the  Lutherans  and  the  Reformed.  This  has  not  been 
suggested  by  any  of  the  higher  authorities  on  the  cate- 
chism, but  by  an  unknown  author,  whom  Niceron  quotes. 
It  is  very  easy  to  see  that  this  was  not  the  reason. 
Frederick  III.,  before  he  undertook  its  composition,  had 
very  decidedly  broken  away  from  Lutheran  ism  by  his 
reforms  at  Heidelberg.  Although  still  under  the  pro- 
tection of  the  Altered  Augsburg  Confession,  he  had 
changed  Lutheran  customs  most  decidedly,  although  he 


AIM   OF   ITS   COMPOSITION. 


171 


had  not  so  openly  attacked   her  doctrines  as  yet.     He 
had  evidently  given  up  all  hope  of  reconciliation  with 
the  high  Lutherans.     We  shall  also  see  farther  on,*  that 
the  doctrinal  position  of  the  catechism  was  not  such  as 
to  make  it  a  middle  ground   between   Lutheranisra  and 
Calvinism.      The    catechism    is    Calvinistic,   although 
moderate  in  its  statements  of  Calvinism.    It  does  not  oc- 
cupy any  such  middle  ground  as  Melaucthonianism.     It 
failed  to  satisfy  the  low  Lutherans,  how  could   it  have 
been  expected  to  satisfy  the  high   Lutherans?     No,  the 
object  was  not  to  bring  about  a  reconciliation   between 
the  Lutherans  and  the   Reformed.     The  reasons  for  its 
composition,  as  suggested  by  Henry  Alting,  a  high  au- 
thority, were  :  first,  the  strife  caused  by  the  use  of  dif- 
ferent catechisms  in   use   in   the  Palatinate.     This  was 
the  immediate  cause.     Brenz's  catechism,  the  work  of 
his  earlier  years,  when  he  was  Melancthonian,  had  been 
introduced   into   the   Palatinate  by   Otto  Henry.     Lu- 
ther's catechism  had  been  introduced  by  Hesshuss,  and 
was  used  by  the  high   Lutherans.     And   between  these 
two  catechisms  there  was  such   a  difference,   that  there 
was  strife  among  the  ministers  and  bewilderment  among 
the  people.     Then,  too,  the  foreign  Dutch  and   French 
refugee  churches  had  brought  with  them  Lasco's  or  Cal- 
vin's catechism.     The   use  of  all  these  opposing  cate- 
chisms gave  rise   to  quarrels.     Frederick  decided  that 

*Part  D  in  this  Section. 


172         THE    RKFORMED    CHURCH    OF    GERMANY. 

the  easiest  way  out  of  the  difficulty    was   to  publish  a 
new  catechism. 

A  second  reason,  suggested  by  A 1  ting,  was,  that  the 
Elector  wished  to  secure  an  agreement  of  the  Palatinate 
churches  on  doctrine,  especially  on  the  doctrine  of  the 
person  of  Christ  and  the  sacraments.  He  wanted  a 
creed  that  would  clearly  state  these  doctrines  over  against 
the  new  doctrine  of  ubiquity,  to  which  he  was  bitterly 
opposed.  These  two  reasons  are  proved  to  be  true  by 
the  Elector's  introduction  to  the  catechism,  where  he  says 
he  sought  to  give  unity  and  purity  to  the  churches  of  the 
Palatinate.  It  is,  however,  to  be  remembered  that  while 
this  was  the  general  aim  of  the  Elector,  the  catechism 
partook  of  the  complexion  of  the  times — the  drift  of  its 
age.  And  as  the  influences  at  Heidelberg  at  that  time 
were  Calvinistic,  or  tending  toward  Calvinism,  it  be- 
came Calvinistic,  especially  under  such  strong  Calvin- 
ists  as  Olevianus,  supported  by  Ursinus,  who  was  little 
less  decided  than  Olevianus  in  his  Calvinism. 

B. — Previous  Materials  Used  in  its  Composition. 

The  next  question  that  arises  is,  what  previous  cate- 
chisms did  its  authors  use  as  aids  to  its  composition  ? 
The  Reformed  Church  by  this  time  had  produced  quite 
a  number  of  catechisms.  Among  the  Lutherans,  Lu- 
ther's and  Brenz's  catechisms  were  the  most  common  ; 
among  the  Swiss,  Bullinger's  and  Calvin's ;  among  the 


PREVIOUS    MATERIALS    USED.  173 

Dutch,  Lasco's  and  Micronius'.  These  four  Reformed 
catechisms,  Bullinger's  aud  Calvin's,  Lasco's  and  Mi- 
cronius', seem  to  have  been  used  to  a  greater  or  less  ex- 
tent in  the  composition  of  the  Heidelberg.  Olevianus 
publicly  confessed  the  debt  he  owed  to  the  Swiss,  wliom 
he  thanks  in  a  letter  to  Bui  linger.  But  there  were  also 
traces  of  Calvin's  catechism  in  the  Heidelberg.* 

But  while  these  catechisms  were  used  in  the  prepara- 
tion of  the  Heidelberg,  yet  it  is  to  be  remembered  that 
it  is  an  advance  on  all  other  catechisms  before  it.  The 
previous  Reformed  catechisms  were  divided  topically. 
Calvin's  was  divided  into  five  parts — faith  or  the  creed, 
the  law  or  the  ten  commandments,  prayer,  the  Bible, 
and  the  sacraments.  Lasco's  and  Bullinger's  were  simi- 
larly divided  into  topics.  But  the  Heidelberg  was  an 
improvement  on  these  artificial  divisions.  For  it  welded 
all  these  parts  into  an  organic  whole.  The  reader  passes 
from  one  point  in  it  to  another  without  any  violent 
change.  Thus  we  learn  first  of  sin,  then  of  redemption, 
and  then  of  the  Christian  life.     And  yet  these  natural 

^'•Especially  in  answers  25,  27,  28,  46,  47,  48,  49,  50,  51,  5i,  54, 
67,  and  also  in  the  answers  on  the  ten  commandments,  and 
Lord's  prayer  and  church  discipline.  (Sudhoff,  Olevianus  and 
Ursinus,  page  92.)  The  catechism  of  Micronius  is  referred  to  in 
answers  20,  21,  26,  29,  33,  34,  36,  45,  49,  55,  56,  8',  82,  101  and  102. 
Lasco's  catechism  is  referred  to  in  the  close  of  1,  63,  54,  66,  69, 
70,  74,  108  and  124;  (see  Bartel's  Liie  of  Lasco,  page  54.)  For  a 
fuller  discussion  of  the  use  of  previous  materials,  the  reader  is 
referred  to  the  works  quoted  here,  and  to  larger  works  on  the 
catechism,  as  Van  Alpen's,  Sudhotl's,  Dalton's  and  Kocher's. 


174         THE    REFORMED   CHURCH   OF   GERMANY. 

and  logical  divisions  included,  in  them,  all  the  artificial 
divisions  of  the  other  catechisms.  The  Heidelberg  cate- 
chism is  the  first  to  show  this  organic  method. 

Another  peculiarity  of  the  Heidelberg  Catechism, 
which  was  an  advance  on  previous  catechisms,  was  the 
number  of  proof  texts  quoted  in  it.  It  was  the  first 
catechism  to  fasten  and  found  itself  so  closely  on  the 
Word  of  God.  The  early  catechisms  of  Luther  had  al- 
most no  proof  texts  quoted  in  them. 

The  most  prominent  catechisms  of  the  Protestant 
Church  have  been  Luther's,  the  Heidelberg,  and  the 
Westminster.  By  comparing  the  Heidelberg  with  Lu- 
ther's, which  preceded  it ;  as  well  as  with  the  Westmin- 
ster, which  followed  it,  we  can  notice  the  peculiarities  of 
our  catechism.  In  Luther's  catechism  the  central  prin- 
ciple, the  guiding  thought,  is  the  sacraments  ;  in  the 
Westminster  it  is  election  ;  in  the  Heidelberg  it  is  grace 
or  redemption.  The  Westminster  is  the  theological 
catechism ;  the  Heidelberg  the  soteriological,  and  Lu- 
ther's the  ecclesiological  catechism. 

If  we  compare  the  Heidelberg  with  Luther's,  we 
find  that  Luther'6  is  much  shorter.  It  has  only  40 
questions  to  129  questions  in  the  Heidelberg.  The 
greatest  difference  is  in  the  doctrine  of  the  sacraments, 
although  they  differ  on  other  minor  points.  They  dif- 
fer in  the  arrangement  of  the  ten  commandments.  In 
Luther's  catechism,  the  ten  commandments  are  placed  at 


COMPARISON   OF   CATECHISMS.  175 

the  beginning  of  the  catechism  ;  in  the  Heidelberg  they 
are  placed  near  the  end.  The  Heidelberg  does  not  stop 
with  merely  the  ten  commandments ;  but,  in  addition, 
gives  the  fuller  New  Testament  version  of  the  com- 
mandments in  Christ's  law  of  love.  The  Heidelberg 
follows  the  Biblical  division  of  the  ten  commandments, 
instead  of  the  Catholic  division,  which  Luther's  follows. 
In  the  creed,  the  Heidelberg  catechism  translates  the 
clause,  'a  holy  Catholic,  Christian  Church/  while  Lu- 
ther's drops  the  word  ^Catholic'  altogether.  They  also 
differ  on  the  Lord's  prayer.  The  Heidelberg  divides 
the  Lord's  prayer  into  six  parts  ;  Luther's  into  seven. 
Luther's  says  '  Father  our'  after  the  '  Pater  noster'  of 
Catholics  ;  while  the  Heidelberg  uses  ^Our  Father,'  as  it 
is  used  in  the  Bible.  The  Heidelberg  uses  'from  the 
devil'  in  the  clause  'deliver  us  from  evil,'  which  Lu- 
ther's uses.  The  Heidelberg  is  very  severe  against  the 
use  of  pictures  in  churches,  while  the  Lutheran  cate- 
chism does  not  refer  to  them  at  all. 

Comparing  the  Heidelberg  with  the  Westminster, 
we  find  it  differs  from  the  Westminster  by  its  use  of  the 
first  person,  all  the  wa}'  through  the  catechism.  This 
makes  it  not  so  much  a  statement  of  doctrine,  as  of  per- 
sonal experience.  It  is  a  personal  catechism  rather  than 
a  dogmatic  one.  ''For  the  Heidelberg  catechism  was 
published  in  the  Pentecostal  season  of  the  reformation." 
It  has  an  unction  not  revealed  by  other  catechisms.    "  Tin- 


176         THE    REFORMED   CHURCH    OF   GERMANY. 

Heidelberg  is  more  experimental,  the  Westminster  more 
scholastic  ;  the  Heidelberg  is  more  emotional,  the  West- 
minster more  intellectual ;  the  Heidelberg  is  more  de- 
votional, the  Westminster  more  doctrinal.'^  One  great 
peculiarity  of  the  Heidelberg  catechism  is,  that  it  so 
closely  follows  personal  experience.  Its  three-fold  di- 
vision exactly  corresponds  with  the  religious  experience 
of  every  believer.  Its  second  answer  divides  it  into 
three  parts — first,  conviction  of  sin  ;  second,  conversion 
to  Christ ;  third,  the  Christian  life  of  thankfulness.  In 
doing  this  it  is  scriptural,  for  it  follows  Paul's  arrange- 
ment of  doctrine  as  given  by  him  in  his  theological  In- 
stitutes, his  Epistle  to  the  Romans.  The  first  part  of 
the  catechism  corresponds  to  Romans  1 :  18  to  3  :  20  ; 
the  second  part  to  Romans  3  :  20  to  11  :  36,  and  the  third 
part  to  Romans  12:1  to  the  end  of  the  Epistle. 

C. — The  Share  each  Author  had  in  its  Publication. 

It  would  be  a  very  interesting  study  to  decide  what 
part  of  the  catechism  Ursinus  wrote,  and  what  part 
Olevianus  composed.  But  this  would  be  a  very  diffi- 
cult task  ;  as  both  seem  to  have  welded  their  w^ork  so 
closely  together  that  no  differences  can  be  discovered. 
Different  commentators  on  the  catechism  have  v^aried  in 
the  parts,  which  they  assign  to  the  one  or  the  other  au- 
thor. Each  of  the  authors  seems  to  have  made  a  pre- 
liminary   preparation.      Ursinus    prepared    two    Latin 


SHARE  OF  EACH  AUTHOR.  177 

catechisms — a  larger  one  for  mature  minds,  and  a  smaller 
one  for  children  and  beginners.  Olevianus  prepared  a 
preliminary  work  on  Grace,  which  was  a  favorite  theme 
of  his.  Both  of  these  works  were  used  toward  the  com- 
position of  the  catechism.  But  it  is  very  difficult  to  ob- 
serve where  the  labors  of  one  author  ended,  and  of  the 
other  began.  Perhaps  the  outlines  were  suggested  by 
Ursinus,  and  the  adaptation  by  Olevianus.  The  depth 
of  thought  and  theological  exactness  came  from  Ursi- 
nus ;  while  the  simple,  popular  style  of  expression  came 
from  Olevianus.  The  Latin  was  from  Ursinus,  the 
fine  fluent  German,  from  Olevianus.  The  doctrinal  part 
was  probably  influenced  more  by  Ursinus,  the  prac- 
tical part,  by  Olevianus.  Sudhoff  imputes  the  first  an- 
swer to  Ursinus ;  while  the  answers  83  to  85  on  the 
power  of  the  keys  and  church  discipline  are  imputed  to 
Olevianus  ;  as  the  substance  of  each  of  those  answers  is 
found  in  his  previous  writings.  But,  doubtless,  each  an- 
swer was  considered  and  re-considered  by  each  author 
in  succession  ;  until  no  part  of  the  catechism  is  by  either 
one,  but  each  part  is  by  both.*     It  is  a  remarkable  fact 

*Ancl  yet  this  unity  is  all  the  more  remarkable  when  we  re- 
member the  dlft'erences  between  the  two  men.  As  Rev.  Dr. 
Nevin,  in  his  introduction  to  the  catechism,  remarks  :  "  The 
catechism  is  the  joint  production  of  both,  and  it  was  this,  not  in 
the  way  of  any  mechanical  putting:  together  of  their  ditt'erent 
compositions  ;  but  in  the  way  of  an  organic  fusion,  which  refers 
the  whole  work  to  both  authors,  and  makes  it  impossible  to 
know^  or  say  what  in  it  belongs  to  one  and  w  hat  to  the  other. 
This  curious  fact  becomes  still  more  curious  when  regard  is  had 


178         THE    REFORMED    CHURCH    OF    GERMANY. 

that  the  united  work  of  the  two  is  better  than  any  work 
composed  by  either  of  them  alone.  The  one  seems  to 
complement  and  supplement  the  other.  Nor  should  we 
forget  the  influence  of  the  Elector  Frederick  himself 
in  the  composition  of  the  catechism.  Although  he  was 
not  the  author  of  it,  he  was  its  patron.  Counsellor  Rit- 
mayer  says ;  "Although  the  Elector  availed  himself  of 
the  services  of  the  Palatinate  doctors,  Ursinus  and  Ole- 
vianus,  in  the  preparation  of  the  catechism,  yet  they 
did  not  venture  to  insert  anything  which  the  Elector 
had  not  approved." 

D, — The  Doctrinal  Position  of  the  Catechism. 

The  doctrinal  position  of  the  catechism  is  Calvin- 
ism, but  Calvinism  moderately  stated.  That  Ursinus 
and  Olevianus  were  Calvinists,  there  can  be  no  doubt. 

to  the  difference  of  temperament  which  we  know  to  have  ex- 
isted between  the  two  men.  Ursinus  standing  before  us,  as  one 
born  to  occupy  the  lecturer's  chair,  didactic,  dialectic,  theoretic, 
and  we  may  say,  respectably  dry.  In  Olevianus,  on  the  other 
hand,  we  have  the  man  of  action  and  eloquence,  the  practical 
reformer,  and  the  ardent,  popular  preacher.  They  seem  not 
such  men,  as,  one  would  expect,  would  get  along  harmoniously 
together  in  a  work  of  this  sort.  And  yet  their  joint  labors 
were  in  truth  perfectly  harmonious  ;  so  that  it  is  hardly  too 
much  to  say  that  we  may  find  the  spirit  of  Ursinus  married  to 
the  spirit  of  Olevianus  in  the  whole  composition  of  the  catechism 
from  beginning  to  end.  With  all  this  must  be  considered,  in 
the  second  place,  that  the  whole  work  was  planned  and  executed 
within  the  course  of  less  than  a  year.  It  was  the  will  of  the 
prince  that  his  favorite  measure  for  the  reformation  of  the  Pa- 
latinate should  as  quickly  as  possible  be  carried  into  effect,  and 
the  men  who  were  charged  with  the  pieparation  went  to  work 
accordingly  with  a  haste  that  seemed  hardly  compatible  with 
the  solemnity  and  greatness  of  the  undertaking." 


ITS    DOCTRINAL    POSITION.  179 

Their  other  works  reveal  them  as  more  Calvinistic  than 
the  catechism  expresses.*  Either  they  did  not  think  it 
expedient  to  express  the  hard  points  of  Calvinism  for 
fear  of  offending  the  Lutherans  ;  or  else,  as  the  Heidel- 
berg catechism  was  intended  to  be  a  popular  treatise  on 
theology,  they  purposely  avoided  the  deep  philosophical 
statements  of  Calvinism.  But  the  catechism  has  a 
thoroughly  Calvinistic  basis  throughout.  Its  doctrinal 
position  may  be  stated  as  moderately  Calvinistic.  Heppe, 
one  of  the  church  historians  of  Germany,  holds  that  the 
catechism  was  Melancthonian  or  low  Lutheran  ;  Sud- 
hoif,  another  writer,  that  the  'catechism  was  intensely 
Calvinistic ;  Ebrard,  that  it  expresses  the  sublapsarian 
school  of  Calvinism,  afterwards  adopted  in  France.  But 
if  the  catechism  were  Melancthonian,  it  would  never 
have  been  adopted  by  the  Synod  of  Dort,  that  strict 
Calvinistic  synod.  And  again,  if  it  had  been  intensely 
Calvinistic,  it  never  would  have  found  favor  among  the 
Melancthonians  of  Germany,  who  afterwards  came  into 
the  Reformed  and  adopted  the  catechism.  The  best 
view  is,  that  it  is  Calvinistic  ;  but  on  its  positive  side, 
the  negative  side  of  reprobation  not  being  mentioned. 
Comparing  the  Heidelberg  catechism  with  Melanctho- 
nianism,  we  find  it  differs  from  it  on  many  points.  It 
radically  opposes  Melancthon^s  synergism.  For  it  is 
intensely  Calvinistic  in  its  doctrine  of  total   depravity. 

*See  Sudboff,  life  of  Olevianus  and  Ursiuus. 


180         THE   REFORMED    CHURCH    OF    GERMANY. 

On  the  doctrine  of  the  perseverance  of  the  saints  it  is 
against  Melancthon's  position,  and  is  Calvinistic.  It 
disagrees  with  Melancthon  on  the  doctrine  of  the  Lord's 
supper,  in  its  reception  by  the  impenitent.  Melancthon 
held,  that  the  impenitent  ate  of  Christ's  body  and  blood 
at  the  supper.  But  the  Heidelberg  distinctly  states  that 
they  ate  to  their  condemnation.  This  opposition  to  the 
communion  of  the  impenitent  caused  a  great  stir  in  Ger- 
many ;  for  it  opposed  the  Lutheran  ideas  so  radically. 
The  catechism  is,  therefore,  not  Melancthonian ;  for  it 
differs  from  it  on  too  many  important  points.  On  the 
other  hand,  it  distinctly  shows  the  influence  of  Calvin- 
ism in  every  part.  It  agrees  with  Calvinism  in  total 
depravity  of  man.  It  agrees  with  it  by  teaching  pre- 
destination. In  answers  1,  35,  53  and  54  it  teaches  the 
positive  side  of  predestination.*  But  it  passes  by  the 
negative  side  of  predestination  and  does  not  mention 
reprobation.  Being  an  experimental  and  practical  cate- 
chism, it  leaves  the  deeper  questions  of  theology  to  pri- 
vate opinion  and  theological  speculation.  The  only 
doctrine  on  which  it  sides  against  the  Calvinism  of  its 
age,  is  the  doctrine  of  the  universality  of  the  atonement, 
which  is  referred  to  in  the  37th  answer.  On  the  doc- 
trine of  Christ's  descent  into  hell,  it  follows  Calvin  very 
closely,  by  giving  a  figurative  explanation  of  that  doc- 
trine.    In  defining  this  clause  it  deviates  from  the  plain 

*Sudho£f,  121. 


ITS   CALVINISM.  181 

facts  stated  all  through  the  creed  ;  and,  strange  to  say, 
becomes  figurative.  It,  however,  emphasizes  an  im- 
portant truth  in  this  44th  answer ;  although,  perhaps, 
it  is  not  placed  exactly  in  its  right  location  in  the  cate- 
chism. On  the  whole,  it  sides  more  against  Melanc- 
thon  than  for  him,  and  sides  far  more  for  Calvin 
than  against  him.  To  show  its  harmony  with  Calvin- 
ism, its  authors  had  a  German  edition  of  Calvin's  cate- 
chism printed  in  Heidelberg  at  the  same  time  that  the 
Heidelberg  catechism  appeared,  and  even  issued  them 
together  in  the  same  book.  Its  authors  evidently 
wanted  it  to  be  Calvinistic  In  regard  to  the  Lord's 
supper,  it  holds  the  Calvinistic  doctrine  and  sets  itself 
decidedly  against  the  Lutheran  doctrine  of  a  corporal 
presence  in  the  Lord's  supper,  as  in  answers  60,  65  to 
69,  71,  75  to  79,  81  and  82.  Answers  47,  48  and  50, 
which  were  evidently  written  under  the  influence  of 
Calvin,  were  severe  against  the  Lutheran  doctrine  of 
ubiquity.  A  memorial  is  still  extant  which  shows  that 
the  Elector  approved  of  this  attack  on  the  doctrine  of 
ubiquity.  There  was  no  Osiandrianism  or  pantheistic 
confusion  of  the  natures  of  Christ  in  the  Reformed 
Church  of  that  day.  Indeed,  Osiandrianism  was  the 
bitterest  foe  of  Calvinism ;  for  Funk,  Osiander's  son- 
in-law,  could  not  find  a  bitterer  accusation  against  the 
theologians  of  Wittenberg  than  to  say  they  were  Cal- 
vinists.     The  central  principle  or  ruling  thought  of  the 


182        THE   REFORMED   CHURCH    OF   GERMANY. 

catechism  is  grace,  salvation  by  grace.  The  catechism 
is  Christological ;  because  it  gathers  itself  around  Christ. 
It  makes  Christ  the  centre ;  and  then  makes  the  centre 
of  the  doctrine  of  Christ  to  be  the  atonement.  The  cate- 
chism is  full  of  "the  satisfaction  of  Christ."  All  parts  of 
the  catechism  point  to  Christ  as  the  one  oifering  for  sin. 
Its  centre  is  Christ,  and  his  centre  is  his  atonement* 

His  name  is  Jesus  and  he  died, 
For  guilty  sinners  crucified  ; 
Content  to  die  that  he  might  win 
Their  ransom  from  the  death  of  sin  ; 
No  sinner  worse  tlian  I  can  be, 
Therefore  I  know  he  died  for  me. 

I  read  God's  holy  word  and  find 

Great  truths  that  far  transcend  my  mind. 

And  little  do  I  know  beside 

Of  thoughts,  so  high,  so  deep,  so  wide  ; 

This  is  my  best  theology, 

I  know  my  Savior  died  for  me. 

— Bethttne. 

Many  of  the  questions  of  the  catechism  are  considered 
master-pieces  of  theological  expression,  as  well  as  of 
popular  definition.  Answer  21  on  faith,  27  and  28  on 
providence,  31  and  32  on  the  Christian  name,  49  on  the 
ascension  of  Christ,  60  on  justification  by  faith,  together 
with  the  exposition  of  the  Lord's  supper.  Ten  Com- 
mandments and  Lord's  prayer  are  very  beautiful.  The 
first  answer  on  Christian  Comfort  is  the  most  beautiful 
of  all,  for  it  is  the  summary  of  the  catechism  and  of  the 
Bible.     Rev.  Dr.  Ebrard,  the  foremost  Reformed  theo- 

*Sudhoff,  112  and  113. 


ITS    PRAISES    BY    EMINENT    MEN.  183 

logian  of  Germany  to-day,  says  of  the  Heidelberg  cate- 
chism :  "  For  wonderful  union  of  dogmatic  precision 
and  genial  heartiness  of  lucid  perspicuity  and  mysterious 
depth,  the  Heidelberg  stands  alone.  It  is  at  once  a  sys- 
tem of  theology,  and  a  book  of  devotion.  Every  child 
can  understand  it  at  the  first  reading,  and  yet  the  cate- 
chist  finds  in  it  the  richest  material  for  profound  inves- 
tigation."* Max  Goebel,  one  of  the  best  historians  of 
the  Reformed  Church,  says:  "The  Heidelberg  cate- 
chism may  be  properly  regarded  as  the  flower  and  fruit 
of  the  entire  German  and  French  reformation.  It  has 
Lutheran  fervor,  Melancthonian  clearness,  Zwinglian 
simplicity  and  Calvinistic  fire  blended  into  one ;  and 
therefore,  notwithstanding  many  defects  and  angles,  it 
has  been,  together  with  the  Augsburg  Confession  of 
1640,  and  remains  to  this  day,  the  only  common  con- 
fession and  doctrinal  standard  of  the  entire  German  Re- 
formed Church  from  the  Palatinate  to  the  Netherlands, 
and  to  Brandenburg  and  Prussia."t  Dr.  Schaff  says  : 
"  It  combines  Calvin's  strength  and  depth  without  his 
severity,  Melancthon's  cordiality  and  warmth  without 
his  indecision,  Zwingli's  simplicity  and  clearness  without 
his  cool  sobriety  and  aversion  to  the  mystics."  The 
Anglican  delegate  to  the  Synod  of  Dort  said  of  the 
Heidelberg  catechism,  after  he  and  his  co-delegates   had 

*Das  Dogma  vom  Abendmahl,  Vol.  II.,  604. 
tGeschichte  des  Christlichen  Lebens,  I.,  392. 


18-1:  THE    REFORMED    CHURCH    OF    GERMANY. 

returned  home  :  ^'Our  Reformed  brethren  on  the  con- 
tinent have  a  little  book,  whose  single  leaves  are  not  to 
be  bought  with  tons  of  gold."  The  poetess  Anna  Maria 
von  Schurman,  when  a  child  four  years  old,  recited  the 
catechism  to  her  nurse  at  Cologne.  As  she  came  to  the 
first  answer  ("that  I  am  not  my  own,  but  belong  to  my 
faithful  Savior  Jesus  Christ,'')  she  was  seized  with  great 
and  secret  joy  and  inward  love  for  God,  and  received  a 
deep  impression  for  her  whole  after-life.  As  Dr.  Schaff 
in  September,  1862,  visited  the  battle  fields  and  hospitals 
of  Maryland,  he  found  among  others,  a  dying  Southern 
soldier  from  North  Carolina,  of  German  origin  and  a 
member  of  the  Reformed  Church.  He  reminded  him 
of  the  first  answer  of  the  Heidelberg  catechism.  The 
soldier  listened  with  thankful  emotion,  and  weeping  said 
he  could  now  die  happy.  Rev.  Dr.  Plitt,  professor  of 
theology  at  Bonn  (formerly  pastor  of  the  church  of  the 
Holy  Ghost  at  Heidelberg),  tells  that  in  his  pastoral  ex- 
perience, he  often  met  men  and  women  whose  eyes 
brightened  when  reminded  on  their  dying  beds  of  the 
first  answer  of  the  Heidelberg  catechism.  Most  of  them 
knew  it  by  heart,  as  they  recalled  it  from  the  days  of 
their  childhood.  Some  said  they  did  not  fully  under- 
stand its  questions  when  they  were  children,  and  that 
committing  it  to  memory  had  been  a  hard  task,  but  now 
they  thanked  God  they  had  learned  it  and   they  prayed 


EDITIONS    AND   TRANSLATIONS.  185 

it  for  their  comfort  and  strength.*  Dr.  Julius  Stahl,  an 
eminent  jurist  and  the  ablest  apologist  of  modern  Lu- 
theranism  in  the  Prussian  universities,  derived  his  own 
conversion  and  the  revival  of  the  Lutheran  Church  in 
his  native  Bavaria  chiefly  from  the  late  venerable  Re- 
formed pastor  and  professor,  Dr.  J.  Ch.  G.  L.  Krafft  at 
Erlangen,  who  died  in  1845.  Dr.  Stahl  said,  before  the 
General  Synod  at  Berlin  in  1846,  "that  the  man  who 
built  up  the  Church  in  my  fatherland,  the  most  apostolic 
man  I  ever  met  in  my  life,  pastor  Krafft,  was  a  strict  ad- 
herent of  the  Heidelberg  catechism.  Whether  he  carried 
the  Heidelberg  catechism  in  his  pocket,  I  know  not,  but 
this  I  know,  that  he  caused,  throughout  the  whole  land, 
a  spring  time,  whose  fruits  will  ripen  for  eternity." 

E. — Editions  and  Translations  of  the  Catechism. 

There  were  three  editions  published  in  1563,  before 
the  catechism  was  fully  completed  in  its  present  form. 
Germany,  after  the  controversies  of  twenty  years  between 
high  Lutherans  and  Melancthonians,  was  ripe  for  such 
a  book.  The  demand  for  it  was  great,  not  only  in  the 
Palatinate,  but  also  outside  of  it,  in  all  parts  of  Germany 
and  in  other  lands.  The  first  edition  was  soon  ex- 
hausted, and  another  and  still  another  edition  was  run 
off  before  the  end  of  the  year  1563.  The  catechism  was 
first  issued  in  German,  but  afterwards  translated  into  Lat- 

*-Studien  unci  Kritiken,  1863. 

13 


186         THE    REFORMED    CHURCH    OF   GERMANY. 

in  by  Lago  and  Pithopeus,  a  Hollander.  Thus  the  Dutch 
who  afterwards  clung  so  loyally  to  the  catechism,  had  a 
part  in  its  publication.  The  Latin  translation  was  made 
that  it  might  be  used  in  the  Latin  schools  and  colleges 
of  the  Palatinate.  The  catechism  bears  on  its  title  page 
the  Palatinate  escutcheon,  which  is  a  triple  coat  of  arms, 
in  the  lower  part  of  which  is  a  globe,  with  a  cross  on  top 
of  it.  This  title  page  was  followed  by  an  excellent  and 
elaborate  preface  by  Elector  Frederick,  thus  giving  his 
official  sanction  to  the  book.  The  book  was  printed  by 
John  Mayer  of  Heidelberg 

The  first  edition  had  several  peculiarities.  The  ques- 
tions and  answers  were  separated,  but  were  not  numbered. 
Nor  was  the  division  of  the  catechism  into  Lord's  days 
made  until  in  the  fourth  edition.  While  the  catechism 
was  printed  in  German,  yet  the  proof  texts  were  printed 
in  Latin  type  on  the  margin  of  the  page.  It  is  also  notice- 
able that  in  the  proof  texts  only  the  chapters  of  the  Bible 
are  referred  to  and  not  the  verses.  For  the  division  of 
the  chapters  into  verses  made  by  Stephens  in  1551,  had 
not  as  yet  come  into  popular  use.  The  eightieth  ques- 
tion of  the  catechism  is  entirely  wanting  in  this  first 
edition.  There  is  only  one  copy  of  this  edition  extant. 
It  belongs  to  Rev.  Dr.  Treviranus  of  St.  Martin's  church, 
Bremen.  It  originally  belonged  to  Professor  Herman 
Wilken,  professor  of  Greek  literature  at  Heidelberg, 
who  was  driven  out  of  the    Palatinate   by    the    Elector 


THE   SECOND    EDITION.  187 

Lewis.     It  has  aa  appendix  of  tweaty-five   pages   con- 
taining various  prayers.     A  fac-simile   copy   of   it   has 
been  published  by  Rev.  Albert  Wolters,and  was  printed 
by  Marcus  at  Bonn  in    1864.*     The   first   edition    was 
soon  exhausted,  and  the  second  edition  was  printed.    Its 
most  important  difference  from  the  first  was  the  addition 
of  the  eightieth  question,    which    treats   of  the   Lord's 
supper  and  the  Popish  mass.     This  answer  reads  in  the 
second  edition  :  "The  Lord's  supper  testifies  to   us  that 
we  have  a  full  pardon  of  all  sin  by  the  only  sacrifice  of 
Jesus  Christ,  which  He  himself  has  once  accomplished 
on  the  cross.     But  the  mass  teaches  that  the  living  and 
dead  have  not  the  pardon  of  sin  through  the  suffering  of 
Christ,  unless  Christ  is  also  daily    offered   for  them    by 
the  priests.     So  that  the  mass  at  bottom  is  a  denial    of 
the  one  sacrifice  and    suffering    of  Christ."     Frederick 
aimed  to  state  clearly  the  differences  between  the  Lord's 
supper  and  the  mass,  because  some  of  the  districts,  over 
which  he  was  joint  ruler,  were  Catholic.     He  wanted  to 
have  Protestantism  introduced  into  them,  and  so  had  the 
errors  of  the  mass  clearly  stated.     There  are  two  copies 
of  this  second  edition  extant,  one  belonging  to  Rev.  Dr. 
Wolters  of  Bonn,  and  the  other  in  the  university  library 
of  Utrecht. 

The  third  edition  was  published  at  the  close  of  1563. 
The   great   difference   between    the   second   and    third 

*As  this  book  is  cheap,  we  would  recommend  its  sale.     It 
puts  one  in  possession  of  an  interesting  relic. 


188         THE    REFORMED    CHURCH    OF    GERMANY. 

editions  was  in  the  eightieth  answer.  It  was  enlarged 
to  its  present  form  ;  and  was  much  more  severe  against 
the  mass.  The  answer  describes  the  mass  as  "an  ac- 
cursed idolatry."  This  severe  statement,  seemingly  out 
of  harmony  with  the  otherwise  irenic  character  of  the 
catechism,  was  probably  made  by  the  Elector  as  a 
protest  against  the  council  of  Trent.  The  language  of 
the  catechism  seems  severe.  But  it  must  be  remembered 
that  strong  language  was  the  characteristic  of  that  time. 
Compared  with  the  decrees  of  the  council  of  Trent 
against  Protestantism,  its  language  is  very  moderate,  for 
"nobody  can  curse  like  the  pope."  Nor  is  this  phrase 
'accursed  idolatry^  any  more  severe  than  Luther's  lan- 
guage in  the  Smalcald  articles,  where  he  calls  the  mass 
"an  idolatry."  Frederick's  predecessor,  Otto  Henry,  in 
his  church  order  of  1555,  called  it  the  same  thing.  The 
Heidelberg  catechism  is  then  the  great  answer  of  Protes- 
tantism to  the  council  of  Trent.  Frederick  took  up  its 
decrees  and  replied  to  them  in  the  Heidelberg  catechism. 
This  eightieth  answer  has  been  criticised  by  many  for  its 
severity.  But  it  has  ever  been  a  bulwark  for  the  pu- 
rity of  the  Reformed  faith  over  against  any  half-catholic 
forms  that  still  lingered  in  the  Protestant  Church  or  were 
attempted  to  be  introduced  into  her  by  any  Puseyite  in- 
novations. Protestantism  must  never  forget  its  duty — 
to  protest  against  popery  outside  or  inside  of  itself.  But 
Frederick  did  not  put  this  answer  into  the  catechism  re- 


THE   THIRD    EDITION.  189 

gardless  of  his  theologians'  feelings.  He  consulted  with 
them  just  as  they  had  consulted  with  him  about  the  rest 
of  the  catechism.  And  finally  he  added  the  clause  in 
his  own  name.  We  must  also  remember  that  Frederick, 
after  the  ideas  of  his  day,  believed  that  princes  were  a 
sort  of  evangelical  bishops.  It  was  their  duty  to  defend 
the  truth  and  to  attack  heresy.  And  so  he  attacked  the 
errors  of  Rome  in  the  decrees  of  Trent.  But  he  was 
not  farsighted  enough  to  foresee  the  possible  consequences 
to  his  land.  He  believed  in  the  motto  of  his  day,  "Like 
prince,  like  people.''  He  did  not  foresee  the  time  when 
his  own  land  might  be  under  the  control  of  a  Catholic 
prince,  and  this  answer  of  the  catechism  might  cause 
trouble.  But  so  it  came  about,  and  this  eightieth  ques- 
tion led  to  persecution  in  his  land.  The  Elector  Charles 
Phillip,  who  was  a  Catholic,  afterward  prohibited  the 
catechism  in  the  Palatinate,  because  it  denounced  the 
mass  as  an  idolatry.  He  also  persecuted  the  Reformed, 
It  was  only  after  the  united  remonstrance  of  Holland, 
Prussia  and  England,  that  he  withdrew  his  opposition 
and  persecution.  There  are  two  copies  of  this  third 
edition  extant.  One  is  in  the  possession  of  Dr.  Bahr  of 
Carlsruhe,  the  other  in  the  hands  of  Rev.  Dr.  Wolters  of 
Bonn.  Bound  with  this  last  copy  is  a  German  copy  of 
Calvin's  catechism.  This  third  edition  is  the  one  used 
for  the  Tercentenary  edition  of  our  Church  (the  sole  copy 
of  the  first  edition  not  having  been  known  at  that  time). 


190        THE    REFORMED   CHURCH   OF   GERMANY 

Rev.  Dr.  Schaif  in  1864,  the  year  after  our  Tercenten- 
ary celebration,  came  across  the  copy  of  the  first  edition 
in  the  hands  of  Dr.  Treviranus  at  Bremen.  The  edi- 
tion now  in  use  in  the  German  and  Dutch  Reformed 
Churches  of  America  was  made  by  Rev.  Dr.  Laidlie, 
originally  of  Scotland,  but  a  minister  at  Flushing,  Long 
Island,  and  was  adopted  in  1771  by  the  synod  of  the 
Dutch  Church.  Other  editions  of  the  catechism  have 
been  published  by  Schaff,  Harbaugh,  and  Fisher,  and 
abbreviations  of  it  by  Van  Home,  Good,  Whitmer,  and 
others. 

The  Heidelberg  catechism  had  many  translations 
and  found  a  wide  circulation.  The  only  book  to  be 
compared  with  it  in  confessional  authority  among  the 
Reformed  Churches  is  the  second  Helvetic  confession, 
which,  however,  did  not  come  into  as  popular  use. 
With  the  exception  of  the  Bible,  Pilgrim's  Progress, 
Thomas  d  Kempis'  Imitation  of  Christ  and  Luther's 
catechism,  the  Heidelberg  catechism  has  had  a  wider 
circulation  than  any  book  published.  It  was  pub- 
lished in  many  editions  in  Germany.  And  it  was  trans- 
lated into  many  languages  outside  of  Germany.  "It 
has  the  pentecostal  gift  of  tongues  in  a  rare  degree."  It 
was  translated  into  Latin  for  use  in  the  schools ;  into 
Greek  by  Robert  Stephens  for  the  use  of  the  Patriarch 
of  Constantinople ;  into  Hebrew  by  Tremellius  for  use 
among  the  Jews  ;  into  Dutch,  Spanish,  French,  Italian, 


ITS   TRANSLATIONS.  191 

Bohemian,  Polish,  Hungarian,  Arabic,  Malay ;  and 
into  Singelese  for  use  among  the  Dutch  missionaries  in 
Ceylon.  An  excellent  translation  has  lately  been  made 
into  Japanese  by  Rev.  Ambrose  D.  Gring.  It  was  intro- 
duced in  Switzerland  into  the  canton  of  St.  Gall ;  and 
the  catechism  of  Zurich,  which  was  the  Swiss  catechism, 
underwent,  in  1609,  a  remarkable  revision,  that  it  might 
conform  to  the  Heidelberg.  It  was  published  in  1595 
in  English,  by  order  of  the  Church  of  Scotland.  In 
Scotland  it  superseded  Calvin's  catechism  ;  and  was  in 
turn  superseded  by  Craig's  catechism,  which  was  in 
turn  driven  out  by  the  Westminster.  It  became  the 
catechism  of  the  Reformed  Church,  as  Luther's  was  of 
the  Lutheran  Church.  A  very  interesting  fact  about 
its  use  has  developed  within  the  last  few  years.  In 
1627  a  Flemish  merchant,  named  Abendroth,  trans- 
lated it  into  Spanish.  Just  at  that  time  there  was  a 
great  tendency  among  the  Spanish  toward  the  gospel ; 
so  that  thousands  and  thousands  were  burned  at  stake 
or  tortured  by  the  Inquisition.  This  man  went  fear- 
lessly to  Spain  to  scatter  his  Spanish  Heidelberg  cate- 
chisms. He  was  soon  arrested  and  burned  in  the  mar- 
ket place  in  Toledo,  Spain.  But  to-day  pastor  Flied- 
ner  uses  this  same  catechism  for  his  German  mission 
work  in  Spain.  This  catechism  was  introduced  into 
America  in  1609  by  the  Dutch,  and  is  (except  the  Epis- 
copalian, which  was  introduced  in  1607)  the  oldest  cate- 


192         THE   REFORMED   CHURCH    OF    GERMANY. 

chism  in  America.  The  Puritans  did  not  arrive  till 
later,  and  the  Presbyterians  and  Lutherans  later  still. 
Such  is  the  Heidelberg  catechism,  the  sweetest,  most 
precious  catechism  ever  written ;  avoiding  hard  points 
of  theology,  it  clings  to  Christ.  Its  irenic  character 
makes  it  a  suitable  symbol,  about  which  all  the  Protest- 
ant denominations  of  Christendom  could  unite. 


Elector  Frederick  III  of  the  Palatinate. 


CHAPTER  II.— SECTION  IV. 

The  Defence  of  the  Heidelberg  Catechism  by  Elector 
Frederick  III. 

When  this  Heidelberg  catechism  had  been  completed 
by  Ursinus  and  Olevianus,  and  approved  by  himself, 
Frederick  called  together  a  synod  of  the  theological 
faculty,  the  superintendents,  and  the  principal  pastors 
of  the  Palatinate,  at  his  castle  in  Heidelberg,  in  Decem- 
ber, 1562,  for  the  purpose  of  examining  and  approving 
the  catechism.*  The  date  of  the  Elector's  preface  to  the 
catechism  was  January  19,  1563.  But  it  probably  did 
not  appear  until  in  February  of  that  year.  The  first 
copies  of  it  were  sent  by  the  Elector  to  different  princes. 
By  the  25th  of  April  the  Emperor  of  Germany  acknow- 
leged  the  receipt  of  a  copy  of  it.  It  was  assiduously 
introduced  everywhere  in  the  Palatinate,  thus  driving 
out  Brenz's  and  Luther's  catechisms.  Ursinus,  as  prin- 
cipal of  the  Sapienz  college,  gave  a  course  of  lectures  on 
the  catechism  in  Latin,  which  he  repeated  annually  till 
1577.     He  did  so,  that   the  minds   of  his  theological 

*Guder  says  it  was  adopted  by  a  council  of  superintendents 
at  Kaiserlautern  :  Studien  and  Kritikeu,  1867,  15  and  82. 


194         THE    REFORMED    CHURCH    OF   GERMANY. 

students  might  be  imbued  with  its  teachings.  After 
his  death,  several  of  his  pupils  published  their  notes  of 
his  lectures.  But  as  there  were  discrepancies  between 
them,  David  Pareus,  who  had  been  Ursinus'  favorite 
scholar,  published  an  authentic  and  carefully  prepared 
edition  of  Ursinus'  lectures  in  1591  at  Heidelberg.* 
But  the  Elector  was  not  satisfied  with  reforming  the 
doctrines  of  his  Church.  He  also  aimed  to  reform  the 
customs  of  his  land,  both  in  church  and  state.  He 
issued,  July  12,  1563,  a  marriage  law.  In  the  same 
year  he  issued  the  Palatinate  liturgy,  and  in  1564  a  set 
of  regulations  for  his  consistory.  Of  these,  the  most 
important  to  us,  is  the  Palatinate  liturgy.f  The  basis 
of  this  Palatinate  liturgy  were  Calvin's  and  Lasco's  lit- 
urgies. It  contains  directions  for  the  worship  in  the 
churches,  and  also  gives  a  number  of  forms  for  religious 
services.  It  orders  that  the  preaching  and  the  service 
should  be  founded  on  the  word  of  God.  It  contains 
directions  and  forms  for  baptism,  directions  for  catechi- 
zation,  directions  and  forms  for  preparatory  service  and 
the  Lord's  supper,  directions  for  alms,  prayers  before 
and  after  sermon,  prayer  after  preaching  on  the  cate- 
chism, directions  for  week-day  services,  universal  prayer, 

*Rev.  Dr.  G.  W.  Williard  in  1851  made  an  excellent  English 
translation  of  them. 

fFor  a  reprint  of  the  edition  of  the  Palatinate  Liturgy  of  1567, 
see  "Die  Evangelischen  Kirchenordnungen  des  16ten  Jahrbun- 
derts,"  by  Richter. 


THE    PALATINATE    LITURGY.  195 

morning  and  evening  prayers,  directions  for  the  celebra- 
tion of  feast  days  and  for  marriage,  visitation  of  the  sick 
and  dying,  and  directions  for  visiting  prisoners,  and  for 
funerals.*  In  regard  to  the  catechism,  as  most  of  the 
people  of  the  Palatinate  had  been  brought  up  in  the 
Catholic  faith  without  religious  instruction,  it  orders  that 
selections  from  the  catechism  should  be  read  in  all  vil- 
lages before  preaching,  so  that  the  summary  of  the  cat- 
echism might  be  read  through  in  nine  Sundays.  It  also 
orders  that  in  towns  where  afternoon  service  is  held, 
there  should  be  catechetical  preaching.  This  was  the 
origin  of  catechetical  preaching,  which  began  in  the  Palat- 
inate. The  Genevan  church  knew  nothing  of  preaching 
to  older  persons,  but  required  the  use  of  the  catechism 
only  for  children.  This  catechetical  preaching  continued 
in  the  Palatinate  until  the  beginning  of  the  present  cen- 
tury. Ullman  says  he  heard  catechetical  preaching  in 
the  church  of  the  Holy  Ghost  by  the  departed  Abegg, 
which  left  impressions  on  him  which  he  never  forgot. 
In  this  catechetical  preaching  the  Heidelberg  catechism 
was  gone  over  once  in  a  year.  The  Lord's  supper  is 
ordered  to  be  celebrated  in  towns  once  a  month,  in  vil- 
lages once  in  two  months,  and  in  both  on  Easter,  Whit- 
sunday and  Christmas.     Very   noticeable   is  the   order 

*In  later  editions  published  by  Elector  Charles,  1684,  the  di- 
rections are  most  of  them  placed  first,  then  follows  the  Heidel- 
berg catechism,  and  then  the  various  forms.  But  the  earlier 
editions  had  the  directions  scattered  through  the  forms. 


196         THE    EEFORMED   CHURCH    OF   GERMANY. 

for  church  discipline,  with  which  the    rubric   for    the 
LorcVs  supper  closes. 

Preparatory  service,  instead  of  confession,  as  in  the 
Lutheran  and  Catholic  Churches,  was  held  on  Saturday 
before  communion.  Young  people  were  received  into 
the  church  at  each  communion,  but  not  by  confirmation, 
which  was  unknown  until  later,  although  there  was  an 
earlier  form  called  ^firmung.^  This  liturgy  orders  that, 
of  the  church  year,  only  the  festivals  which  emphasize 
the  facts  of  Christ's  life  should  be  celebrated,  Christmas 
and  the  day  following.  New  Year,  Easter  and  the  day  fol- 
lowing. Ascension  day,  Whitsunday  and  the  day  following. 
The  rest  of  the  church  year  is  carefully  dropped.  There 
is  no  mention  of  Advent,  Epiphany,  Trinity  Sunday,  and 
other  sacred  days.  They  wanted  to  avoid  as  much  as 
possible  the  multitudinous  feast  days  of  the  Catholic 
Church.  The  Liturgy  orders  the  singing  of  Psalms,  but 
in  German,  not  in  Latin,  as  the  Catholics  had  done. 
The  ministers  were  ordered  to  wear  suitable  clothing 
during  the  discharge  of  their  duties ;  but  there  is  no 
order  to  wear  gowns.*  In  the  towns,  Wednesday  and 
Friday  were  selected  as  days  for  prayer.  In  villages 
there  was  only  one  service  during  the  week.  It  also 
ordered  that  all  Romish  or  superstitious  ceremonies 
should    be   put   away   at   funerals.      This  liturgy  was 

*"  Furthermore  ministers  shall  use  genteel  clothing  and  plain 
apparel  in  the  discharge  of  their  duties,  as  on  other  occasions." 
Translation  of  the  liturgy  in  the  Mercersburg  Review,  1851. 


THE    PALATINATE    LITURGY.  197 

thoroughly  Calvinistic  in  tone.  It  contained  no  high 
churchism  or  sacramentarianisra,  as  we  understand  it  in 
this  day.  There  was  no  absolution  of  sin,  only  a  con- 
fession of  sin.  There  was  no  reference  to  Scripture  les- 
sons for  each  Sabbath  of  the  church  year  ;  indeed,  no 
reference  to  the  church  year  at  all,  except  that  it  ordered 
the  feast  days,  which  commemorated  the  great  facts  of 
Christ's  life  and  death,  to  be  observed.  All  other  names 
for  Sabbath,  and  all  other  feast  days,  were  dispensed 
with.  There  were  no  pericopes  or  Scripture  lessons  for 
each  Sabbath.  They  do  not  seem  to  have  had  them  in 
the  Palatinate.  No  litany  is  given.  The  Reformed 
everywhere  opposed  the  chanting  of  the  litany  as  formal. 
The  word  altar  is  never  used,  but  carefully  avoided,  be- 
cause they  were  so  opposed  to  the  sacramentarianism  of 
the  Lutheran  altar.  And  there  is  room  left  for  free 
prayer  at  the  services  ;  as  there  are  no  forms  given  for 
certain  parts  of  the  service.  The  true  idea  of  this  Pa- 
latinate liturgy  was,  that  it  was  a  directory  of  worship 
(like  the  recently  adopted  Order  of  Worship  of  the  Ger- 
man Reformed  Church  of  America),  not  a  liturgy.* 
The  liturgy  was  closely  related  to  the  catechism.  It 
contained  the  catechism  in  it.     But  in  style  it  was  some- 

*Liturgies  may  be  said  to  be  of  three  kinds,  sacramentarian, 
responsive  and  non-responsive  liturgies.  The  Palatinate  lit- 
urgy is  not  sacramentarian,  for  it  has  no  altar  nor  priest  in  it. 
It  is  not  responsive  in  the  sense  that  liturgies  of  to-day  are  re- 
sponsive ;  that  is,  there  is  no  elaborate  antiphonal  answering  of 
minister  and  people,  nor  antiphonal  singing.     Indeed,  it  could 


198         THE   REFORMED   CHURCH    OF   GERMANY.  ' 

what  heavier,  more  didactic  than    the  catechism,   and 
lacked  its  glow  and  warmth. 

There  was  also  a  consistorial  order  published  in 
1564.  It  placed  all  the  church  affairs  under  the  con- 
trol of  the  consistory.  The  Church  and  state  were  to  be 
separate  arms  of  government.  The  Sapienz  college, 
where  ministers  were  trained,  was  placed  under  the  con- 
trol of  the  consistory.     This  consistory  was  to  supply 

not  have  been  thus  elaborately  responsive ;  for  the  people  at 
that  time  did  not  have  a  liturgy  in  their  hands  from  which  to 
respond.  The  minister  had  the  only  copy  in  the  church.  Books 
were  scarce,  and  many  of  the  people  could  not  read.  These 
things  made  responsive  worship  (as  we  have  it  in  some  churches 
to-day)  out  of  the  question.  The  only  response  mentioned  in 
the  early  Palatinate  liturgy  is  the  word  'yes'  at  the  preparatory 
service.  And  this  was  used,  because,  as  so  many  of  the  people 
had  just  come  from  Romanism,  the  Church  wanted  to  convince 
herself  that  the  communicants  stood  in  personal  faith  of  the 
truths  of  the  gospel,  before  they  were  admitted  to  the  sacra- 
ment. With  this  brief  exception,  the  liturgy  is  non-responsive. 
The  Reformed  Church  always  had  this  idea  of  liturgies.  They 
were  non-responsive,  and  merely  directories  of  worship.  And 
as  the  Church  grew  in  experience  and  piety,  they  were  grad- 
ually dispensed  with  in  many  of  the  churches  in  their  daily 
Sabbath  services,  although  used  on  sacramental  occasions. 
There  is  no  elaborate  responsive  service  in  them.  The  liturgy 
was  afterwards  cast  aside,  and  we  believe  is  not  used  at  present 
in  the  Reformed  churches  of  Germany  in  the  Sabbath  services, 
except,  perhaps,  in  Hesse.  The  great  aim  of  the  service  was 
not  the  liturgy,  as  in  the  Episcopal  and  Lutheran  churches  ;  but 
the  liturgy  w^as  used  as  merely  a  help  to  the  service,  and  sec- 
ondarj^  to  it.  This  liturgy  was  intended  to  teach  the  ministry 
and  people  (many  of  whom  had  just  come  out  of  Catholicism) 
how  to  hold  Protestant  worship.  It  was  to  be  a  guide  to  the 
people,  until  they  had  learned  to  worship  God  aright.  It  was 
also  intended  to  unify  the  worship  of  the  churches  throughout 
the  Palatinate. 


OPPOSITION   TO   CALVINISM.  199 

the  churches  with  ministers,  to  watch  over  them,  and 
also  to  attend  to  the  discipline  and  excommunication  of 
the  members  in  the  churches.  The  church  order  re- 
quired that  a  synod  should  be  held  yearly,  in  which  the 
consistory  was  represented  by  two  members.  This 
church  order  produced  an  excellent  state  of  religious 
life  in  the  Palatinate.  The  Reformed  people  have  to 
thank  Frederick  for  this  thorough  organization  of  the 
consistory,  which  afterwards  stood  as  a  bulwark  against 
the  Roman  Catholic  reaction  under  Louis  XIV.  of 
France. 

But  the  most  critical  time  in  the  history  of  the  Re- 
formed Church  in  Germany  was  approaching.  She  was 
in  danger  of  being  strangled  in  the  cradle  at  her  birth. 
The  Lutheran  theologians  and  princes  gradually  united 
against  Frederick  and  threatened  him  with  the  loss  of 
his  electorate.  For  the  publication  of  the  catechism  had 
raised  a  gieat  storm.  Frederick  did  not  desire  that  the 
Heidelberg  catechism  should  be  a  departure  from  the 
Augsburg  Confession  (explained  in  a  Melancthonian 
sense),  which  he  had  signed  at  Naumberg.  But  the 
high  Lutherans  said  it  was  a  departure  from  the  true 
faith  of  the  Augsburg  Confession.  Even  the  Melanc- 
thonians,  as  at  Wittenberg  and  Marburg,  came  out 
against  the  Heidelberg  catechism  as  a  new  departure 
from  Lutheranism.  They  declared  that  the  catechism 
was    not    even    Melancthonian.     The    Melancthonian 


200         THE    REFORMED    CHURCH    OF   GERMANY. 

princes  took  alarm  at  the  change  from  wafers  to  bread, 
the  abolition  of  pictures,  and  its  definition  of  the  Lord^s 
supper.  The  first  opponents  to  the  catechism  were  not 
Catholics,  but  Lutherans.  Hesshuss  issued  his  "True 
Warning'^  against  the  Heidelberg  catechism.  Flacius, 
the  high  Lutheran  leader  of  North  Germany,  refuted 
the  catechism.  The  Wurtemberg  divines  under  Brenz 
and  Andrea  passed  a  censure  on  it,  in  which  18  questions 
in  particular  were  severely  criticized.  Ursinus  drew  up 
an  apology  for  it  against  Flacius'  attack.  He  also 
issued  a  tract  in  reply  to  the  Wurtemberg  theologians. 

The  princes  also  took  up  the  matter  as  well  as  the 
theologians.  The  aged  Landgrave  Philipp  of  Hesse 
went  to  the  trouble  of  visiting  Frederick  at  Heidelberg 
to  urge  him,  for  political  as  well  as  doctrinal  reasons,  to 
give  up  his  catechism.  He  attacked  Frederick  for  using 
bread  instead  of  wafers,  which  was  contrary  to  Luther- 
anism.  Frederick  reminded  him  that  the  Bible  speaks 
of  bread  at  the  Lord's  supper  ;  and  also  that  at  Stras- 
burg  baked  cakes,  not  wafers,  had  always  been  used, 
and  yet  Strasburg  had  always  been  protected  by  the 
Augsburg  Confession  ;  why  should  not  he  be  protected 
by  it  too  ?  The  Landgrave  found  he  was  answered  by  a 
man  mighty  in  the  Scriptures.  After  an  ineffectual 
visit,  he  left  Heidelberg.  Then  three  other  neighbor- 
ing princes,  Prince  Christopher  of  Wurtemberg,  Mar- 
grave Charles  of  Baden,  and  Count  Wolfgang  of  Neu- 


CONFERENCE    AT    MAULBRON.  201 

berg  and  Zweibriicken,  a  triumvirate  of  Lutherans, 
united  to  urge  Frederick  to  give  up  his  cateohisra  ;  be- 
cause, they  said,  it  was  not  in  harmony  with  the  Augs- 
burg Confession.  Frederick  answered  that  he  had  not 
fallen  away  from  the  Melancthonian  decrees  of  the 
Frankford  Conference.  He  also  aimed  a  direct  shot, 
that  went  home  to  Duke  Christopher.  He  reminded 
Christopher  that  he  ought  not  to  complain  about  him. 
For  Brenz,  Christopher's  theologian,  had  given  expres- 
sidn,  years  before,  in  a  commentary  on  John,  to  the  same 
ideas  that  Frederick  had  expressed  in  his  catechism. 
(Brenz  had  done  this  in  his  earlier  life,  when  he  was 
a  Melancthonian).  Christopher  could  not  answer  a  word 
to  this.  And  Frederick  thus  showed  that  it  was  not  he, 
who  had  departed  from  the  Lutheranism  of  earlier 
years,  but  it  was  Brenz  and  Christopher,  by  their  intro- 
duction of  the  doctrine  of  ubiquity. 

But,  although  Duke  Christopher  was  thus  worsted, 
he  still  labored  very  hard  to  bring  Frederick  back  to 
Lutheranism.  A  conference  was  arranged  between  the 
Lutheran  theologians  of  Wurtemberg  and  the  Reformed 
professors  of  Heidelberg ;  to  be  held  at  Maulbron  in 
Wurtemberg.  This  conference  was  intended  to  bring 
both  parties  into  union  again.  The  conference  began 
at  Maulbron,  April  10,  1564,  and  lasted  for  six  days. 
It  was  a  very  important  conference;  for  it  defined  the 
position  of  the  Reformed  over  against  the  Lutherans. 
14 


202         THE    REFORMED    CHURCH    OF    GERMANY. 

Frederick  went  to  that  conference,  accompanied  by  his 
chancellors  Ehem  and  Erastus,  by  Diller,  Boquin,  Ole- 
vianus,  Ursinus,  Dathenus  and  Xilander.  Duke  Christ- 
opher brought  with  him  his  chancellor  Gerhart,  and 
Brenz,  Andrea,  Schnepf,  Biedenbach  and  Luke  Osian- 
der.  The  leaders  in  the  disputation  were  Andrea  for 
the  Lutherans,  and  Ursinus  and  Olevianus  for  the  Re- 
formed. But  the  first  preliminaries  prophesied  disunion 
rather  than  union.  The  Reformed  wanted  to  begin  the 
conference  by  a  discussion  of  the  Lord's  supper;  but 
the  Lutherans  insisted  that  ubiquity  should  be  made 
the  starting  point,  as  they  said  it  was  the  basis  of  the 
Lord's  supper.  The  Lutherans  gained  their  point,  and 
for  five  days  ubiquity  was  discussed.  Very  soon  the 
Lutherans  began  making  polemical  thrusts  at  the  Re- 
formed, and  even  at  the  Elector  ;  and  had  to  be  called  to 
order,  to  take  back  what  they  had  said  against  the  Elec- 
tor. During  the  discussion,  Christopher's  theologians 
relied  more  and  more  on  the  authority  of  Luther;  while 
Frederick  departed  more  and  more  from  him,  saying  : 
"  Luther  is  no  apostle.  He  also  can  err."  It  finally 
became  evident  that  if  the  conference  continued  in  this 
way,  it  would  never  come  to  an  end,  or  only  end  in 
bitterness.  So  the  conference,  after  discussing  the 
Lord's  supper  for  another  day,  without  coming  to  any 
united  conclusion,  broke  up. 

This  conference  had  a  wide   influence.      It  defined 
the  position  of  the  Reformed  on  the  doctrine  of  the  per- 


RESULTS    OF    MAULBRON.  203 

son  of  Christ.  It  stands  in  history  as  a  protest  by  the 
Reformed  against  ubiquity,  or  any  Eutychianism,  or 
Osiandrianisra,  or  any  theanthropic  life  theories.  The 
Reformed  theologians,  in  their  hatred  of  the  doctrine  of 
ubiquity,  defined  their  position  very  strongly  against 
any  fusion  of  the  natures  of  Christ.*  Both  sides 
claimed  the  victory  at  this  conference,  but  it  was  a  vir- 
tual victory  for  the  Reformed.  For  by  this  discussion 
they  threw  a  bombshell  into  the  Lutheran  camp.  This 
conference  began  to  divide  the  Lutherans,  and  set  Sax- 
ony and  Hesse  against  Wurtemberg  and  Jena.  For 
the  acts  of  this  conference  w^re  sent  by  Duke  Christo- 
pher, to  the  universities  of  Wittenberg  and  Marburg  in 
Hesse,  for  adoption.  But,  instead  of  being  adopted  by 
them,  they  only  opened  the  eyes  of  these  Melancthonian 
universities  to  the  dangers  from  high  Lutheran  ubiquity; 
and  they  declared  against  the  Wurtemberg  theologians. 
The  ultimate  result  of  them,  years  after,  was  Crypto 
Calvinism  in  Saxony  and  the  conversion  of  Hesse  to  the 
Reformed  faith.  This  Maulbron  conference  only  sep- 
arated the  two  denominations,  instead  of  uniting  them. 
The  differences  between  the  Reformed  and  Lutherans 
soon  produced  a  terrible  pamphlet  war  between  the 
theologians  of  Wurtemberg  and  those  of  the  Palatinate. 
It  was  a  battle  of  books,  a  paper  war.  In  all  these 
controversies,   Ursinus   was  compelled  to  act  as  leader, 

*Sudho£f,  260. 


204        THE    REFORMED    CHURCH    OF   GERMANY. 

which  was  very  unpleasant  to  his  timid,  peaceful  na- 
ture. Of  the  part  he  took  in  this  Maulbron  conference, 
he  says  in  a  letter  written  to  Bullinger  years  later  :  "  I 
have  received  a  wound  from  this  conflict  which  I  do 
not  expect  to  have  healed  in  this  life.^^  After  this  he 
always  tried  to  retire  from  controversy  ;  although  his 
clear,  logical  mind  was  frequently  called  upon  to  write 
defences  for  the  Reformed. 

Frederick  was  not  only  attacked  by  Duke  Christo- 
pher, but  also  by  the  other  princes.  A  storm  of  danger 
was  gathering,  which  threatened  to  burst  over  him  and 
deprive  him  of  his  country.  For  being  Reformed,  he 
was  ostracised  by  all  the  Lutheran  princes  of  Germany, 
except  Landgrave  Philip  of  Hesse.  Duke  Christopher 
of  Wurtemberg  was  the  principal  agent  in  working  up 
the  case  against  him.  (It  is  strange  that  Christopher 
should  be  so  ungrateful  as  to  do  this,  for  he  owed  the 
conversion  of  his  land  to  a  Reformed  reformer,  Martin 
Bucer.)  It  was  evident  that  Frederick  would  be  brought 
before  the  Diet  at  Augsburg  in  1566,  to  answer  for  his 
Reformed  heresy.  The  high  Lutherans  charged  that 
Frederick  had  violated  the  peace  of  Augsburg  of  1555, 
which  made  the  Augsburg  Confession  of  the  Lutherans, 
the  only  Protestant  creed  allowed  in  Germany.  They 
charged  that  Frederick  had  published  a  catechism  out 
of  harmony  with  the  Augsburg  Confession,  and  had 
therefore  violated  the  Augsburg  peace  and  exposed  him- 


AUGSBURG   CONFESSION    AND    CALVINISM.         205 

self  to  the  ban  of  the  empire.  It  is  to  be  remembered 
that  that  Augsburg  Confession  forbade  Zwinglianism ; 
but  did  not  say  a  word  about  Calvinism,  which  came 
up  later.  The  legal  question  now  arose  whether  Cal- 
vinism (which  was  nearer  Melancthonianism,  on  the  sac- 
raments) would  be  permitted  to  exist  in  Germany  under 
the  protection  of  the  Augsburg  Confession,  or  not.  The 
high  Lutherans  said  it  could  not.  Frederick,  in  reply 
to  them,  said  he  had  signed  the  Augsburg  Confession 
and  still  adhered  to  it.  He  claimed  that  the  Augsburg 
Confession  was  drawn  up  to  exclude  Zwinglianism  ;  but 
not  to  exclude  Calvinism,  which  had  not  yet  appeared 
when  that  Confession  was  written.  He  claimed  that 
his  catechism  was  not  a  violation  of  the  Augsburg  Con- 
fession, but  a  farther  development  of  the  Wittenberg 
Concord.  He  reminded  them  that,  by  the  Wittenberg 
Concord,  the  Reformed  people  of  Strasburg  had  been 
given  equal  rights  under  the  Augsburg  Confession.  He 
explained  the  Augsburg  Confession  just  as  the  Stras- 
burg people  had  done  ;  if  they  had  not  been  excluded, 
why  should  he  be?  Frederick  claimed  that  he  w^as 
not  farther  away  from  the  Augsburg  Confession  than 
were  many  other  princes  of  Germany,  as  Elector  Au- 
gustus of  Saxony,  Landgrave  Phillip  of  Hesse,  and  the 
King  of  Denmark.  Frederick  declared  in  the  contro- 
versy, that  he  had  never  asked  what  Calvin  or  Zwingli 
taught,  as  he  had  not  been  baptized  in  the  name  of  any 
man,  but  of  God. 


206         THE    REFORMED   CHURCH    OF    GERMANY. 

Matters  were  becoming  quite  serious.  The  Emperor 
as  well  as  the  princes  and  theologians  had  taken  sides 
against  Frederick  ;  and  had  sent  word  to  him  that  he 
must  give  up  his  catechism,  re-introduce  the  Augsburg 
Confession,  and  keep  the  peace.  The  Catholic  princes 
joined  with  the  Lutheran  nobles  against  Frederick. 
Some  of  Frederick's  Catholic  neighbors,  as  the  Bishop 
of  Worms,  and  his  superior,  the  Elector  of  Mayence, 
brought  charges  against  Frederick,  for  introducing 
Protestantism  into  their  lands,  which  were  adjacent  to 
Frederick's  territory.  The  Bishop  of  Spire  and  the 
representatives  of  the  monasteries  that  Frederick  had 
suppressed  in  the  Palatinate,  also  united  their  complaints 
against  Frederick.  Thus  we  see  that  from  all  sides 
very  great  and  grave  dangers  were  gathering  around 
Frederick.  Indeed  they  became  so  threatening  that  his 
brother,  Count  Richard  of  Simmern,  tried  to  dissuade 
him  from  going  to  the  Augsburg  Diet  in  1566.  But 
Frederick's  answer  revealed  his  trust  in  God.  He  says  : 
"  I  believe  that  God,  who  has  brought  me  to  a  knowl- 
edge of  the  gospel,  still  reigns ;  and  if  it  should  cost  my 
blood,  I  would  regard  martyrdom  as  an  honor,  for 
which  I  could  not  sufficiently  thank  him  in  time  or 
eternity.*'  Here  shone  forth  in  him  the  true  martyr- 
spirit.  It  was  the  general  expectation  of  the  people  of 
the  Palatinate  that  Frederick  would  be  deposed  from 
his  throne  for  his  Calvinism,  as  Elector  John  Frederick 


AUGSBURG    DIET.  207 

of  Saxony,  who  was  held  a  captive  in  the  Emperor's 
camp  for  six  years,  had  been  from  his  Electorate.  In- 
deed, while  Frederick  was  at  Augsburg,  the  rumor 
spread  through  Heidelberg  that  he  had  been  condemned 
and  executed.  The  new  Reformed  Church  of  Germany 
was  in  danger  of  being  strangled  in  her  cradle. 

The  Augsburg  Diet  opened  with  great  pomp  and 
splendor.  Frederick,  appreciating  the  gravity  of  the 
situation,  had  sent  Councillor  Ehem  to  Augsburg  as 
early  as  February  ;  although  he  himself  did  not  follow 
until  April.  Indeed  Frederick  had,  the  previous  win- 
ter, visited  Elector  Augustus  of  Saxony ;  and  his  visit 
bore  fruit,  as  we  shall  see,  in  this  Diet.  Before  Fred- 
erick arrived,  all  the  Evangelical  states,  on  March  31, 
declared  they  would  deny  any  relations  with  Frederick, 
so  long  as  he  did  not  delare  himself  clearly  and  satis- 
factorily a  Lutheran.  (Phillip  of  Hesse,  however,  was 
not  at  this  Diet,  or  Frederick  might  have  had  one 
friend  to  speak  for  him.)  When  Frederick  arrived,  a 
few  days  later,  he  found  himself  ostracised  by  both 
Catholic  and  Lutheran  princes.  He,  however,  heard 
that  the  Evangelical  princes  were  about  sending  to  the 
Em})eror  a  paper  defining  their  ecclesiastical  position. 
So  he  hastened  to  the  Elector  of  Saxony  to  tell  him  that 
he,  too,  desired  to  sign  it  with  them.  The  Saxon  Elec- 
tor made  this  known  ;  and  a  conference  of  the  Lutheran 
priuces  was  held,  which  decided  that,  if  Frederick  would 


208         THE   REFORMED   CHURCH    OF   GERMANY. 

come  back,  clearly  and  fully,  to  the  Augsburg  Confes- 
sion, he  would  be  allowed  to  sign  the  paper.  It,  how- 
ever, became  evident  that  the  previous  stand  of  the 
princes  against  him  was  weakening.  The  princes  were 
beginning  to  feel  the  personal  influence  of  Frederick, 
now  that  he  was  among  them.  And  they  also  heard 
the  earnest  Evangelical  preaching  of  his  eloquent  court- 
preacher  (probably  Diller,)  whom  he  had  brought  with 
him  to  Augsburg.  But  it  was  Elector  Augustus  of 
Saxony,  who  now  stepped  forward  as  mediator  between 
the  Lutherans  and  Frederick.  He  was  the  only  prince 
there  who  was  friendly  to  Frederick,  and  his  influence 
saved  Frederick  at  this  Diet. 

There  were  two  or  three  reasons  why  the  Elector  of 
Saxony  favored  Frederick.  One  was  a  political  one. 
Heretofore  Saxony  had  held  the  foremost  position 
among  tlie  Lutheran  princes.  But  at  this  Diet  it  looked 
as  if  Duke  Christopher  of  Wurtemberg  had  taken  it 
upon  himself  to  be  the  leader.  And  so  a  jealousy  arose 
in  the  heart  of  the  Elector  of  Saxony,  which  led  him  to 
oppose  the  machinations  of  the  Duke  of  Wurtemberg 
against  Frederick.  Another  reason  why  the  Elector 
favored  Frederick,  was  a  theological  one.  The  Saxon 
Elector  at  that  time  was  a  Melancthonian.  His  court 
was  largely  under  the  control  of  Peucer,  the  son-in-law 
of  Melancthon,  who  was  afterwards  imprisoned  for 
being  a  Crypto  Calvinist.    So  Elector  Augustus  favored 


SYMPATHY   OF   AUGUSTUS.  209 

Frederick,  because  he  had  belonged  to  the  same  party 
of  Lutherans,  the  Melancthonians.  He  declared  that  if 
the  princes  assailed  Frederick  for  his  Calvinism,  they 
ought  also  to  attack  the  Duke  of  Wurtemberg  for  his 
doctrine  of  ubiquity.  Frederick  said  to  Augustus  that 
he  was  surprised  that  the  princes  should  ask  him  to 
come  back  to  the  Augsburg  Confession ;  for  he  had 
never  been  away  from  it.  He  had  signed  the  Augsburg 
Confession  at  Naumberg,  and  now  held  to  it,  as  he  had 
ever  done.  He  also  called  the  Saxon  Elector's  attention 
to  the  fact  that  the  Lutherans  were  not  united  among 
themselves  as  to  what  was  Lutheranism.  The  Witten- 
berg theologians  who  were  Melancthonian,  had  pro- 
nounced against  the  ubiquity  of  Wurtemberg,  as  revealed 
by  the  Maulbron  conference.  Augustus  thus  sympa- 
thized with  Frederick  in  his  efforts  against  ubiquity.  A 
third  reason  may  have  been  a  suspicion.  It  may  have 
dawned  on  the  Elector  of  Saxony  that,  if  the  chance 
were  given  to  the  high  Lutherans  to  depose  Frederick, 
his  fellow  Elector,  they  might  soon  cut  off  his  head, 
too,  for  being  a  Melancthonian.  His  Saxon  Electorate 
had  once  been  taken  away  from  John  Frederick  before  ; 
it  might  be  taken  away  from  him  again.  The  Evan- 
gelical princes  (all  except  the  Duke  of  Wurtemberg) 
now  took  the  position  that  Frederick  ought  not  to  be 
condemned. 

But  before  the  princes  had  come  to  a  full  agreement 
about  Frederick,  they  received  word  that  the  Emperor 


210         THE   REFORMED   CHURCH    OF   GERMANY. 

had  summoned  Frederick  to  answer  for  himself  for  his 
Calvinism.      The  Emperor  was  Maximilian,   who  was 
thoroughly   acquainted    with  the   religious  problems  of 
Germany.      Before  his  election  to   the   throne,  he  had 
been  considered  such  a  moderate  Catholic,  that  some  had" 
hoped  he  might  turn  Protestant,  after  he  became  Em- 
peror.     He  disappointed  this  hope,   but  always  ruled 
the  Protestant  princes   with  a  liberal  spirit.     He,  how- 
ever, insisted    that  the   Protestants   should    not  go  any 
farther  from  Catholicism  than  the  Augsburg  Confession. 
He  was,  therefore,    very   much    opposed  to  Frederick's 
new  catechism    and  to  his    Calvinism.      So,    when    the 
charges    were    brought  by  the   Catholic   and   Lutheran 
princes  against  Frederick,  he  listened  to  them.     On  the 
fourteenth  of  May  he  laid  the  decree  before  the  rest  of 
the  nobles,  requiring  Frederick  to  give  up   his  Calvin- 
ism, to  restore  some  of  the  Catholic  chapters  and  clois- 
ters he  had  confiscated,  to  hold   and  to   keep  the  Augs- 
burg peace  of  1555,  and  to  be  a  Lutheran.     Frederick 
was  sent  out  during  the   approval  of  the    decree.       He 
was  then  called  in  to  answer  for    himself.      He   came, 
followed  by  his  son  John    Casimir,    the   latter  carrying 
his  Bible.* 

And  now  came  the  climax  of  Frederick's  defence  of 
his  beloved  catechism.     The  scene   was  a  grand  one,  as 


*Herzog  says  this  story  of  carrying  the  Bible  is  probably 
not  true,  as  there  is  no  mention  of  it  in  Frederick's  letters.  Her- 
zog's  History,  302. 


DEFENSE   OF    FREDERICK.  211 

before  the  Emperor  and  all  his  princes,  Frederick  stood 
alone.  He  listened  to  the  reading  of  the  decree  against 
him ;  and  then  made  a  defence,  marvellous  in  its  conse- 
cration and  eloquence.  It  revealed  the  noble  soul  of 
his  Christian  character.  At  the  beginning  of  his  ad- 
dress, he  acknowledged  himself  willing  to  be  obedient 
to  the  Emperor  in  all  things,  except  when  the  salvation 
of  his  soul  came  into  question.  He  confessed  he  knew 
very  little  about  what  men  called  Calvinism.  He  had 
read  none  of  Calvin's  writings,  (except  his  Commentary 
on  Jeremiah,  which  Calvin  had  dedicated  to  him.)  He 
had  signed  the  Augsburg  Confession  at  Naumberg,  and 
continued  in  that  faith.  As  to  his  catechism,  it  was 
founded  on  the  Scriptures.  If  he  was  mistaken  in  it, 
he  would  be  glad  to  have  them  prove  it  to  him,  as  he 
was  willing  to  be  convinced.  He  then  reminded  the 
Emj>eror  that  as  his  father  Ferdinand  at  his  coronation 
at  Frankford  in  1562  was  not  willing  to  punish  him 
for  leaving  the  celebration  of  the  mass,  he  should  show 
the  same  spirit  of  religious  toleration.  "  Should,  how- 
ever," he  said,  "  contrary  to  my  expectation,  my  de- 
fence and  the  Christian  and  reasonable  conditions  which 
I  have  proposed,  not  be  regarded  of  any  account,  I  shall 
comfort  myself  in  this,  that  my  Lord  and  Savior  Jesus 
Christ  has  promised  to  me  and  to  all  who  believe,  that 
whatsoever  we  lose  on  earth  for  his  sake,  we  shall 
receive  a  hundred  fold  in  the  life  to  come."     Such  was 


212         THE   EEFORMED   CHURCH    OF   GERMANY. 

Frederick's  manly  defence.  So  spoke  the  "  Luther"  of 
the  Reformed  Church  at  this  Diet  of  Augsburg.  Like 
Luther  at  Worms,  he  was  threatened  with  many  dan- 
gers. Like  Luther,  he  said :  "  So  help  me  God,  I  can 
not  do  otherwise."  When  he  closed  his  eloquent  ad- 
dress, a  silence  as  of  death  reigned  over  the  assembly. 
All  felt  that  a  Christian  hero,  whose  strong  tower  of 
defence  was  in  the  word  of  God,  had  spoken.  Very 
few  princes  of  that  age,  or  of  any  age,  could  have  made 
an  address  at  once  so  spiritual  and  so  eloquent.  All, 
even  his  enemies,  could  not  help  admiring  the  earnest- 
ness and  manly  bravery  of  his  declaration.  The  only 
murmur  against  it  was  by  the  Catholic  Bishop  of  Augs- 
burgy'^who  said  something  about  the  eightieth  answer  of 
the  Heidelberg  catechism.  The  Elector  of  Saxony  was 
so  much  moved  that  he  touched  Frederick  on  the 
shoulder,  saying :  "  Fritz,  you  are  better  than  all  of 
us."*  The  Margrave  of  Baden  remarked  to  some  of 
the  princes  at  the  breaking  up  of  the  session  :  "  Why 
trouble  ye  this  man  ?  He  is  more  pious  than  all  of  us." 
It  is  an  interesting  fact  that  Hesshuss,  whom  Frederick 
had  deposed  for  opposing  his  Calvinism,  was  at  Augs- 
burg at  that  time,  in  the  employ  of  Count  Wolfgang  of 
Zweibriicken,  and  had  to  see  the  victory  of  Frederick. 
The  Emperor  was  very  much  disconcerted  by  Fred- 
erick's steadfastness.     From  the  influence  of  Frederick's 

*Herzog  says  this  is  mythical. 


RESULT   OF    AUGSBURG    DIET.  213 

address  he  saw  that  the  Evangelical  states  would  not 
vote  for  Frederick's  expulsion.  The  Protestant  princes 
then  tried  to  get  Frederick  to  give  up  his  Calvinism 
and  catechism.  But  he  remained  firm.  In  the  pres- 
ence of  Prince  Casimir,  he  thanked  them  for  their 
declaration  that  they  would  not  condemn  any  one  who 
agreed  with  the  Augsburg  Confession.  He  also  brought 
before  their  minds  the  thought  that,  if  he  were  deposed 
from  his  electorate,  what  came  to  him  to-day,  would 
come  to  them  to-morrow,  as  had  come  to  their  brethren 
in  France,  Spain,  Italy  and  the  Netherlands  through 
persecution.  The  Diet  finally  decided  that  although 
Frederick  varied  somewhat  from  the  Augsburg  Con- 
fession, yet  they  believed  there  was  a  possibility  of  com- 
ing to  an  understanding  with  him ;  and  on  no  account 
should  he  be  deposed  as  a  violator  of  the  peace  of  1555. 
The  result  of  this  Augsburg  Diet  was  a  victory  for 
Calvinism  ;  although  it  was  achieved  under  the  protec- 
tion of  the  Augsburg  Confession.  It  secured  for  Cal- 
vinism an  existence  in  Germany.  It  gave  Calvinism  a 
legal  standing  under  the  Augsburg  Confession.  Had 
Frederick  lost  his  case,  the  Reformed  Church  would 
have  been  crushed  in  its  infancy.  More  than  that,  a 
precedent  would  have  been  begun,  by  which  the  Catho- 
lics could  depose  Lutheran  princes,  if  they  charged  them 
with  not  being  sufficiently  Lutheran.  They  had  al- 
ready deposed  Catholic  princes  for  becoming  Protestant, 


214         THE   REFORMED   CHURCH    OF    GERMANY. 

as  in  the  case  of  the  Elector  of  Cologne.  But  they  had 
never  sat  in  judgment  on  any,  for  not  being  sufficiently 
Lutheran.  They  had  never  dared  take  that  authority  on 
themselves.  Had  this  power  been  granted  to  the  Catho- 
lics, it  would  not  have  been  long  before  other  Protestant 
princes  would  have  been  deposed  for  a  like  cause.  The 
German  princes  waked  up  to  this  fear  at  that  Augsburg 
Diet,  and  refused  to  allow  the  Diet  to  act  in  such  a  case. 

Frederick  arrived  safely  at  Heidelberg  on  Friday 
before  Whitsunday,  and  was  gladly  welcomed  by  the 
people,  many  of  whom  looked  on  him  as  one  risen  from 
the  dead  ;  for  they  never  expected  to  see  him  come  back 
from  that  Diet  alive.  At  the  preparatory  service,  after 
the  sermon  was  over,  he  warmly  grasped  Olevianus' 
hand,  and  urged  him  to  still  greater  zeal  and  steadfast- 
ness in  the  truth.  On  the  next  day  he  partook  of  the 
communion  in  company  with  his  son  Casimir  and  the 
whole  congregation. 

After  the  Augsburg  Diet  was  over,  the  Emperor  re- 
mained for  a  time  irreconcilable  to  Frederick  for  his 
Calvinism.  But  the  close  union,  which  appeared  again 
in  the  Electoral  college  of  the  government,  prevented 
him  from  taking  any  severe  measures  against  Frederick. 
So  a  conference  was  ordered  to  be  held  at  Erfurt  in  Sep- 
tember, 1566,  when  Elector  Frederick  was  to  be  brought 
into  harmony  with  the  other  Lutheran  princes.  This 
conference  turned  out  to  be  a  small  one  and  of  verv  lit- 


EMPEROR   AND    ELECTOR.  215 

tie  importance.  None  of  the  princes  were  present  in 
person,  and  only  a  few  sent  deputies.  The  opposition 
to  Frederick  III.  seemed  to  have  burned  itself  out  at 
Augsburg,  and  a  reaction  took  place  afterward  in  his 
favor.  The  opposition  of  the  Emperor  finally  changed 
into  the  closest  of  friendships.  He  afterward  visited 
the  Elector  at  Heidelberg  while  on  his  way  to  Spire. 
At  his  departure  the  Elector  presented  him  with  a 
Spanish  Bible,  in  which  was  written  :  '^In  this  book  is 
contained  the  treasure  of  treasures,  especially  the  heav- 
enly wisdom,  which  kings,  emperors  and  princes  should 
know,  if  they  would  rule  well."  The  Emperor  prona- 
ised  to  read  it  diligently. 

Thus  Frederick  was  declared  an  adherent  of  the 
Augsburg  Confession.  And  yet  in  the  same  year  he  re- 
ceived the  Second  Helvetic  Confession  from  Bullinger, 
which  pledged  the  Palatinate  to  Calvinism,  thus  uniting 
himself  with  the  Swiss  churches. 


CHAPTER  II.— SECTION  V. 

The  Later  Life  of  Elector  Frederick  III,  1566—1576. 
Frederick,  by  his  defence  at  Augsburg,  had  .closed 
his  controversies  with  the  Lutheran  princes.  He  had 
gained  for  the  Reformed  Church  the  right  to  exist  in 
Germany.  But  still  he  was  not  allowed  to  live  in  peace. 
A  new  controversy  arose.  Hitherto  the  danger  to  the 
Reformed  faith  lay  outside  of  the  Palatinate ;  now  it 
suddenly  rises  within  the  Palatinate  itself.  It  was  not 
a  controversy  between  the  Lutherans  and  the  Reformed  ; 
but,  among  the  Reformed  themselves.  It  was  the  rise 
of  Erastianism.  The  Reformed  Church  had  in  it  two 
tendencies  of  church  government.  The  one  had  origi- 
nated from  Zwingli,  which  placed  church  discipline  un- 
der the  control  of  the  state  ;  the  other  started  from  Cal- 
vin, and  placed  church  discipline  entirely  under  the  con- 
trol of  the  church.  It  is  possible  that  had  Zwingli 
lived  longer,  he  would  have  developed  the  latter  form^ 
too ;  but  he  did  not  live  long  enough  to  perfect  many 
of  his  views.  So  what  Zwingli  did  not  perfect,  Calvin 
completed.  These  differences  between  the  Reformed,  on 
church  government,  now  began  to  show  themselves  in 
the  Palatinate.     Erastus  became  the  leader  of  the  Zwing- 


CAUSE   OF   ERASTIANISM.  217 

lian,  Olevianus,  the  head  of  the  Calvinistic  party.     The 
controversy  originated  from  a  very  slight  cause.    A  young 
Englishman,   named   Withers,  came  to    Heidelberg  to 
take  the  doctor's  degree.     He  selected,  as  the  subject  of 
his  theses,   the  topics  that  had  been   prominently  dis- 
cussed in  England  between  the  Puritans  and  Episcopa- 
lians "on  the  use  of  gowns  by  the  clergy  and  other  rit- 
ualistic ceremonies  of  the  English  Church."     But  Bo- 
quin  and  Zanchius  returned  his  theses  to  him.     As  their 
land  was  very  friendly  to  England,  they  did  not  wish 
the  university  to  formulate  any  deliverance   that  might 
give  offence  to  the  English.     They  ordered  him  to  take 
new  subjects,  such  as  church  discipline  and  excommuni- 
cation.    So   Withers  offered   this  topic  for  discussion. 
And  in  doing  this,  he  even  went  so  far  in  his  statements, 
as  to  make  excommunication  apply  to  princes,  as  well 
as  to  common   people — an  unheard-of  doctrine  at  that 
time.*     The  disputation  took  place  June  10,   1568,  in 
the  aula  of  the  university  under  the  presidency   of  Bo- 
quin.     All  proceeded  pleasantly  till  toward  the  end  of 
the  discussion,  when  Neuser,  one  of  the  preachers  of 
Heidelberg,  then  arose  and  complained  that  too  little 
time  had  been  allowed  to  those  who  opposed  such  ex- 
treme views  of  excommunication.     So  the  subject  was 
continued  until   the  next  day,  and  then    to  the  third. 

*For  Wither's  theses,  see  Williard,   Heidelberg  Catechism, 
page  453. 

15 


218         THE    REFORMED   CHURCH   OF   GERMANY. 

The  controversy  revealed  a  difference  between  the  strict 
Calvinists  and  the  Moderates.     The  whole  city  became 
involved  in  it.     Neuser  preached   on   it  in  St.   Peter's 
church  the  following  Sabbath  ;  and   Oleviauus,  pastor 
of  the  same  church,  answered  him  from    the  same   pul- 
pit.    The  strife  increased,  until  the  Elector   was  com- 
pelled to  use  discipline  to  stop  it.     The  Calvinistic  party 
claimed  that  the  eighty-fifth  answer  of  the   Heidelberg 
catechism  supported  their  views.     Then  Erastus  began 
to  give   vent  to  his  pent-up    antipathy    to   Olevianus, 
which  had  begun  years  before,  even  when  the  catechism 
was  adopted  by  the  synod   of  1562.     He  now   became 
very  severe  in  his  letters.     He  called  Olevianus   'pope/ 
and  Zanchius  'a,  down  right  fool  '     He  tried  to  get  the 
Zurich  theologians  to  influence  their  friends  at   Heidel- 
berg in   his  favor.     The    Zurich    church    sympathized 
with  Erastus  ;  for  it  held  that  it  was  the  duty  of  the 
state  to  punish.     The  Zurich   church   discipline  was  in 
the  hands  of  the  police.     It  held,  that  the  Christian 
magistrate  governed  the  church  in  the  name  of  the  state, 
and  that  it  was  the  duty  of  the  state  to  punish  all  of- 
fenders by  bringing  them  before  the  city  courts  of  justice 
and  putting  them  in  prison.     Erastus,  like  them,  held 
that  excommunication  should   be  left  to  the  Christian 
magistrates  as  long  as  they  did   not  neglect  their  duty. 
Bullinger  tried  to  influence  Frederick  III.  ;  and  also  to 
control  Ursinus,  because  he  had  been  very  much    under 


CALVINISM    AND    ERASTIANISM. 


219 


the  control  of  the  Swiss,  and  also  because  he  had  come 
out  from  the  Melancthonian  party  of  Germany,  which 
had  not  been  strict  in  discipline.  ButUrsinus  remained 
true  to  the  doctrine  as  laid  down  in  the  Heidelberg 
catechism,  and  was  a  strict  Calvinist  here.  While  Bul- 
linger  upheld  Erastus,  Beza  supported  Olevianus.  At 
Heidelberg  the  Erastians  were  Neuser,  Prof.  Xi lander, 
Melancthon,  nephew  of  the  great  Phillip  Melancthon, 
and  Prince  Casimir,  who  conceived  such  an  antipathy  to 
Olevianus  through  this,  that  it  was  said  he  would  not 
allow  Olevianus  to  marry  him.  This  rumor  was,  how- 
ever, contradicted,  because  it  was  said  his  bride  (a  strict 
Lutheran)  insisted  on  being  married  by  a  Lutheran 
preacher.  The  Calvinistic  party  consisted  mainly  of 
foreigners,  as  Boquin,  Zanchius,  Olevianus,  and  others. 
The  Elector  was  at  first  undecided  which  party  to  favor. 
He  finally  decided  with  Olevianus,  in  favor  of  strict 
church  discipline.  He,  perhaps,  was  influenced  to  this 
by  the  example  of  the  French  Reformed  church  at  Hei- 
delberg, which  exhibited  the  benefits  of  strict  discipline. 
Under  such  elders  as  Boquin,  Tremellius  and  Zanchius, 
it  revealed  such  a  high  type  of  piety  and  Christian  ac- 
tivity, that  the  Elector  desired  its  example  of  piety 
should  be  followed  by  the  German  churches.  He  or- 
dered that  a  board  of  censors  or  elders  should  be  formed 
in  every  congregation.  To  them  he  gave  the  power  of 
discipline  and  excommunication,  which  Erastus  said  be- 


220         THE   REFORMED   CHURCH    OF   GERMANY. 

longed  to  the  state.  It  is,  however,  to  be  noticed  that 
these  elders  were  not  elected  by  the  members  of  the  con- 
gregation, but  appointed  by  the  consistory.  Thus  it 
was  not  pure  presbyterianism,  for  Erastus^  opposition 
had  had  the  effect  of  modifying  the  church  government. 
Still,  it  was  a  form  of  presbyterianism  ;  for  it  placed 
power  in  the  hands  of  the  presbytery  or  board  of  elders. 
The  Erastians  declared  that  this  strict  church  discipline 
was  unscriptural  and  tyrannical.  They  held  that  a  pres- 
bytery, armed  with  the  power  of  church  discipline, 
might  become  as  tyrannical  and  powerful  as  the  Catho- 
lic hierarchy  and  introduce  persecution  just  as  the  Catho- 
lic inquisition  had  done.  But  the  full  development  of 
Erastianism  (checked  at  Heidelberg)  appeared  in  Eng- 
land and  Scotland  more  than  a  century  later.  Indeed, 
Erastus'  views  were  not  fully  known  until  after  his 
death,  when  his  widow  published  them,  and  Beza  re- 
plied to  them.  It  is  to  be  remembered  that  the  word 
Erastianism  was  more  used  outside  of  Germany  than  in 
it.  Erastianism  afterwards  nieant  more  than  Erastus 
meant.  Erastus  aimed  to  subject  merely  excommunica- 
tion to  the  state  authority ;  while  the  Erastians  would 
subject  the  Church,  in  all  its  departments,  to  the  state. 
In  England  and  Scotland  Erastianism  was  applied  to 
those,  who  opposed  the  self-government  of  the  Church, 
and  who  wanted  to  subordinate  the  Church  absolutely  to 
the  control  of  the  state.     There  was  a  distinct  party  in 


THE   elector's    DECISION.  221 

the  Westminster  Assembly,  led  by  Selden,  Lightfoot, 
Coleman  and  Whitlock  (some  of  the  brightest  scholars 
of  that  body),  who  were  Erastians. 

As  the  Elector  sided  with  Olevianus,  and  ordered 
the  introduction  of  the  Calvinistic  church  government 
and  the  employment  of  discipline,  Heidelberg  became  a 
second  Geneva  in  morality.  In  a  funeral  sermon  Tos- 
sanus  says  of  the  result  of  Olevianus'  church  discipline  : 
"  Every  one  must  acknowledge  that  there  exists  in  Hei- 
delberg, and  in  the  entire  Palatinate,  order,  quietness 
and  a  Christian-like  state  of  affairs,  very  different  from 
what  has  been  for  several  years  past."  By  a  strange 
coincidence  of  history,  Erastus  himself  was  the  first  vic- 
tim of  this  church  discipline,  which  he  opposed.  He 
was  afterward  excommunicated  on  the  charge  of  Arian- 
ism,  the  instigator  of  the  charge  against  him  being  an 
Italian,  Antonio  Pigasetta.*  Erastus  remained  excom- 
municated for  five  years,  and  was  then  restored. 

From  this  controversy  on  church  discipline  we  now 
come  to  a  sadder  one.  While  the  controversy  about 
church  government  was  embittering  the   people  of  the 

*An  interesting  novel,  somewhat  tinctured  by  the  present 
freethinking  tendencies  of  Heidelberg  University,  but  never- 
theless useful  in  giving  an  insight  into  the  manners  and  spirit 
of  the  times  of  Erastus,  was  written  by  Geo.  Taylor  (Prof.  Haus- 
rath  of  Heidelberg),  entitled  Clytia,  and  published  by  Gotts- 
berger  of  New  York.  Was  Pigasetta  a  Jesuit  in  disguise, 
placed  there  to  stir  up  trouble  in  the  Protestant  camp,  as  Pro- 
fessor Hausrath  suggests  ? 


222         THE    REFORMED   CHURCH    OF   GERMANY. 

Palatinate  against  each  other,  another  and  a  greater  con- 
troversy concerning  doctrine  was  ripening.  It  was  the 
introduction  of  Arianism  into  the  Palatinate.  Arianism 
denied  the  eternal  existence  of  the  Son  of  God,  and 
hence  denied  the  divinity  of  Christ.  It  entered  the  Pa- 
latinate from  Italy.  Some  of  the  Erastians  became 
Arians.  Indeed,  it  is  possible  that  some  of  them  so 
bitterly  opposed  Olevianus,  because  they  feared  church 
discipline  in  their  own  cases.  Looseness  of  doctrine 
and  laxity  of  discipline  are  apt  to  go  together.  But 
Erastus,  though  charged  with  it,  was  not  an  Arian.  He 
was  only  in  bad  company, — with  those  who  were  found 
to  be  Arians  ;  and  hence  came  under  suspicion.  The 
leaders  in  this  new  movement  toward  free  thought  in 
theology  were  Adam  Neuser,  the  eloquent  preacher  of 
the  St.  Peter's  church  at  Heidelberg,  and  Sylvanus, 
pastor  at  Ladenberg.  Both  believed  themselves  wrongly 
treated  by  Olevianus.  And  from  opposing  him  in 
church  government,  they  went  on  to  opposing  him  in 
doctrine.  Two  other  ministers,  Sutor  of  Feidenheim 
and  Vehe  of  Kaiserlautern,  declared  for  this  new  doc- 
trine. Neuser  made  use  of  his  pulpit  to  spread  his  lax 
doctrines.  As  Olevianus  was  preacher  in  the  same 
church,  a  conflict  was  inevitable.  The  Elector  tried  to 
make  peace  by  transferring  Neuser  to  the  church  of  the 
Holy  Ghost  as  the  early  Sabbath  preacher.  But  the 
trouble,  which  had  been  brewing,  came  to  a  head  sud- 


RISE   OF    ARIANISM.  223 

denly.  In  1570  Maximilian  held  a  Diet  at  Spire, 
near  Heidelberg.  It  seems  that  at  that  Diet  the  prince 
of  Transylvania,  where  such  lax  doctrines  as  Arianism 
and  Socinianism  were  rife,  had  sent  ambassadors  to  treat 
with  the  Emperor  for  an  alliance  against  the  Turks. 
Neuser,  Sylvauus  and  Vehe  became  intimate  with  these 
ambassadors.  They  sent  letters  to  the  ambassadors, 
asking  for  positions  in  Transylvania.  Sylvanus  wrote 
to  the  physician  Blaudrata,  the  leader  of  Socinianism 
(who  was  the  superintendent  of  the  Reformed  Church  of 
Transylvania),  asking  for  a  position  there.  Neuser  also 
wrote  a  letter  to  the  Sultan,  in  which  he  gives  up  the 
doctrine  of  the  trinity  and  goes  over  to  the  monotheism 
of  Islamism.  In  their  letters  they  described  themselves 
as  belonging  to  a  wide-spread  party  in  Germany,  who 
had  given  up  the  doctrine  of  the  trinity.  An  unfore- 
seen event  led  to  the  discovery  of  their  correspondence 
and  their  heresy.  It  happened  that,  when  these  Tran- 
sylvanian  ambassadors  urged  the  Emperor  to  enter  into 
a  political  alliance  with  them  against  the  Turks,  he  re- 
fused to  do  so.  He  said  he  could  not  enter  into  any 
alliance  with  any  nation  that  did  not  believe  in  the  di- 
vinity of  Christ,  and  in  the  doctrine  of  the  trinity.  The 
Transylvanian  ambassadors  then  replied  that  the  Em- 
peror had  a  wide-spread  party  in  his  own  realm,  who 
did  not  believe  those  doctrines.  The  Emperor  at  once 
denied  it.     In  proof  of  it  they   then  offered  the  letters 


224         THE    REFORMED   CHURCH    OF   GERMANY. 

they  had  received  from  Neuser  and  Sylvanus,  and  called 
his  attention  to  the  statements  in  them,  that  there  was  a 
large  party  of  Unitarians  in  Germany.  The  Emperor 
was  surprised  at  this  discovery,  and  sent  the  letters  to 
the  Elector  of  the  Palatinate.  The  Elector  at  once  ar- 
rested Neuser,  Sylvanus,  Suter  and  Vehe.  But  Neuser 
managed  to  escape  from  his  arrest  and  to  flee  to  Turkey  ; 
where  he  became  a  Turkish  Pasha,  went  over  to  Mo- 
hammedanism, and  died  a  most  awful  death,  like  Herod 
the  king,  after  a  life  of  shameful  wickedness.  Fred- 
erick saw  the  danger  and  power  of  the  heresy.  He  de- 
termined that  something  must  be  done  to  stop  it,  and  to 
redeem  his  land  from  the  disgrace  it  had  suffered  before 
the  eyes  of  the  world.  For  a  long  time  he  faltered  be- 
fore taking  extreme  measures.  There  was  a* division  of 
opinion.  The  civil  judges  of  Heidelberg  said  Sylvanus 
ought  to  be  punished,  but  not  with  death.  The  min- 
isters declared  that  Sylvanus  ought  to  suffer  death.  As 
the  offence  was  a  religious  one  as  well  as  civil  one, 
Frederick  did  not  know  what  to  do.  He  sent  to  other 
lands  for  advice.  The  Lutheran  professors  of  Witten- 
berg and  the  Reformed  theologians  of  Switzerland  said 
the  same  thing — that  Sylvanus  ought  to  be  put  to  death. 
This  was  the  temper  of  the  age — death  for  heresy.  So 
Sylvanus  was  finally  beheaded  in  the  market  place  of 
Heidelberg,  close  to  the  church  of  the  Holy  Ghost,  on 
December  23,  1572.  Vehe  and  Suter  were  deposed  and 
banished. 


EXECUTION    OF   SYLVAN  US.  225 

Frederick  and  his  councillors  have  been  severely 
criticised  for  this  beheading  of  Sylvanus.  In  the  light 
of  our  age,  it  was  cruel.  But  we  must  remember  that 
the  sixteenth  century  was  not  the  nineteenth.  We  must 
judge  him  by  the  temper  of  his  age.  It  was  the  spirit 
of  that  age  to  punish  heresy  thus.  Catholics,  Episcopa- 
lians and  Lutherans  did  it.  Frederick  was  only  fol- 
lowing the  example  of  Calvin  in  doing  it,  and  thus 
making  Heidelberg  a  second  Geneva.  We  must  remem- 
ber, too,  that  Frederick  was  urged  to  extreme  measures 
by  the  mockery  of  the  ultra  Lutherans  about  the  matter. 
Those  Lutherans  rejoiced  at  the  heresy  in  the  Palatinate. 
Had  they  not  said  that  the  Zwinglians  were  Arian  devils 
and  Mohammedans  ?  Now  it  was  proven,  as  Sylvanus 
went  over  to  Arianism,  and  Neuser  to  Mohammedanism. 
Osiander  said  that  "as  Neuser  went  to  hell,  he  would 
find  the  first  step  of  it  to  be  Calvinism.''  Frederick  felt 
he  was  humiliated  in  the  eyes  of  the  world.  He  wanted 
to  redeem  his  reputation  ;  and  was  willing  to  take  ex- 
treme measures  to  prove  his  orthodoxy  and  disprove  the 
mocking  charges  of  the  high  Lutherans.  It  is  also  to 
be  remembered  that  the  offense  of  SyK^anus  was  not 
merely  a  religious  one,  but  also  a  civil  one.  Two 
preachers  had  desired  to  join  the  Turkish  Sultan.  Such 
an  act  was  treason,  and  was  offense  enough  in  that  age 
to  be  punished  with  death.  The  Turks  were  the  most 
feared  of  enemies.     With  Jesuits  at  home  and  Turks 


226         THE    REFORMED   CHURCH    OF   GERMANY. 

abroad,  as  danger  thus  pressed  on  them  near  and  far,  it 
is  no  wondej  that  such  dangers  were  exaggerated  and 
such  sad  scenes  as  the  beheading  of  Sylvan  us  took  place. 
In  1668  Ursinus  retired  from  the  professorship  of 
the  University  to  take  charge  of  the  Sapienz  College, 
and  Zanchius  took  his  professor's  chair  in  the  Univer- 
sity. But,  with  his  feeble  health,  the  care  of  the  Sapienz 
College  was  too  much  for  him.  He  calls  it  "his  tread- 
mill." In  1570  his  friend  and  patron,  Crato,  was  pres- 
ent at  the  Diet  at  Spire,  but  Ursinus^  duties  were  so 
great  that  he  could  not  get  away  to  see  him.  Finally, 
wearied  with  his  work,  he  was  about  resigning  and 
accepting  a  call  that  came  to  him  from  Berne.  The 
Elector  requested  him  to  stay,  and  he  stayed.  He  wrote, 
he  expected  to  die  in  his  tread -mill.  His  labors  pro- 
duced sleeplessness  and  hypochondria.  So  an  assistant 
was  given  him.  An  important  event  in  Frederick's 
reign  was  the  publication  of  a  Latin  translation  of  the 
Bible  by  Tremellius  and  Junius  in  1574.  The  Elector 
also  showed  his  sympathy  with  foreign  Reformed 
Churches  in  various  ways.  He  sent  troops  to  help  the 
persecuted  Reformed  in  France.  In  1572  he  was  great- 
ly grieved  by  the  news  of  the  massacre  of  St.  Bartholo- 
mew. He  also  aided  the  Hollanders  by  sending  troops 
to  their  help.  Count  Egmond,  who  had  been  put  to 
death  by  the  Spaniards  at  Brussels,  was  a  brother  to  his 
second  wife,  the  Princess  of  Nuenar.     His  youngest  son, 


THE    UPPER    PALATINATE.  227 

Christopher,  the  darling  of  his  people,  went  into  Dutch 
military  service  and  was  killed  at  the  battle  of  the  Mock- 
er haide. 

We  must  not  forget  to  notice  Frederick's  zeal  for  his 
own  land,  as  well  as  for  other  Reformed  lands.  He 
tried  to  introduce  the  Reformed  faith  into  all  parts  of 
his  realm.  The  Upper  Palatinate  was  strongly  Luth- 
eran. Frederick  made  several  attempts  to  introduce  the 
Keformed  faith  into  it.  He  first  attempted  it  in  1563. 
But  his  oldest  son,  Lewis,  who  was  the  governor  of  the 
Upper  Palatinate,  was  an  intense  Lutheran  ;  and  he  sup- 
ported the  people  against  his  father,  much  to  his  father's 
sorrow.  Frederick  went  to  Amberg  in  1566,  taking 
with  him  Oleviauus,  whom  he  had  heard  dispute  with 
such  power  at  Maulbron.  Frederick  urged  that  polem- 
ics be  stopped,  that  the  high  Lutheran  rites  be  put 
away,  and  Reformed  worship  established,  and  a  Re- 
formed school  opened  at  Amberg.  But  it  was  all  in  vain. 
He  tried  it  a  second  time,  after  the  rise  of  Arianism  in 
the  Palatinate,  the  Lutheran  superintendent  of  the  Upper 
Palatinate  having  been  deposed  for  Arianism.  Fred- 
erick took  advantage  of  this  to  try  and  introduce  the 
Reformed  faith  there.  He  sent  to  Amberg  a  new  com- 
mission, among  whom  were  Count  Lewis  of  Witt- 
genstein and  Tossanus.  But  they  could  do  nothing. 
For  the  people  locked  the  church  at  Amberg  against 
them  and  surrounded  it  with  an  armed  guard.  The 
Elector  was  very  much  inclined  to  remove  his  son  Lewis 


228         THE   REFORMED   CHURCH    OF   GERMANY. 

from  his  position  as  governor  of  the  Upper  Palatinate, 
because  he  so  much  opposed  his  father's  wishes.  Fred- 
erick finally  proposed  to  go  himself  and  introduce  the 
Reformed  faith  there.  But  his  death  prevented  him 
from  carrying  out  his  purpose.  The  Upper  Palatinate 
remained  Lutheran,  and  the  Lower  Palatinate  remained 
Reformed.  The  Upper  Palatinate  passed  into  the 
hands  of  Bavaria  during  the  Thirty  Years'  War.  The 
Duke  of  Bavaria  called  in  the  Jesuits  to  re-convert  it  to 
Romanism.  Lutheranism  soon  passed  away  and  Ca- 
tholicism came  in.  High  ritualistic  customs,  like  cru- 
cifixes, exorcism,  Latin  singing,  &c.,  are  a  poor  bul- 
wark against  Catholicism.  Half-Catholic  themselves, 
these  were  an  easy  bridge  by  which  men  could  return  to 
the  bosom  of  the  Romish  Church.  The  result  was,  that 
what  was  once  the  Upper  Palatinate,  is  now  inhabited 
by  the  most  bitter  of  Catholics. 

But  Elector  Frederick's  end  was  rapidly  approach- 
ing. His  continued  devotion  to  God  is  shown  by  the 
fact  that  some  months  before  he  died,  when  his  son 
Casimir  came  back  from  the  French  war,  the  first  place 
he  took  him  to,  was  the  castle  chapel,  to  return  thanks 
to  God,  sa}'ing:  "Is  any  happy,  let  him  sing  psalms."* 

*This  chapel  is  now  the  bandhaus  of  the  castle,  just  west  of 
the  present  chapel  of  Frederick  IV.  The  old  chapel  ran  east 
and  west,  and  not  north  and  south,  like  the  present  bandhaus. 
A  side  chapel  to  this  old  chapel  was  added,  and  was  built  over 
where  the  great  tun  is  now  located.  The  front  of  the  old  chapel 
was  torn  out  and  a  new  one  erected. 


DEATH    OF   FREDERICK.  229 

The  last  days  of  Frederick  were  embittered  by  the  con- 
duct of  his  oldest  son  Lewis,   who  refused  to  come  and 
see  him  before  he  died.     Lewis  probably  feared  to  come 
to  his  father's    bedside,    lest  he   might   be  required  to 
promise  that  he  would   not  expel  the  Reformed    from 
the  Palatinate  after  his  father's  death.      Frederick  felt 
this  danger  to  his  beloved  Reformed  Church,  if  he  died. 
And  so,  like  Jacob  of  old,    with    forebodings,    and   yet 
with  a  prophetic  vision,  he  said   about   his  two  year  old 
grand-son    (named  after  him) :  "  Lewis  will  not  do  it, 
Fritz  will  do  it."     These  words  were  afterward  fulfilled, 
as  his  son  Lewis  drove  the  Reformed  out  of  the  Palat- 
inate; but  his  grand-son    Frederick    re-introduced    the 
Reformed  faith  again.      Before  he  died,  Frederick  III. 
said :  "  I  have  done  the  best  I  could    for    the  Church, 
but  have  not  been  able  to  accomplish   much.     God  the 
Almighty  will  not  sufter  it  to  be  left  an  orphan.       My 
tears  and  prayers  which    have  ascended  to  God  for  my 
successors  and  the  Church,    will    not    remain    without 
fruit."     When  the  news  of  the   Emperor  Maximilian's 
death,    fourteen    days    before  his  own   death,    came  to 
Frederick,  he  said  :  '^  Lord,  now   lettest  thou  thy  serv- 
ant depart  in  peace.     If  I  could   only  speak  to  the  new 
Emperor,  and  see  my  son    Lewis    before    my  end,   and 
talk  with  him  about  the  Christian    republic."       On  the 
26th  of  October  his  disease,  dropsy,  completed  its  work, 
and  he  fell  asleep  in  Jesus.       His   court-preacher   Tos- 


230         THE    REFORMED    CHURCH    OF   GERMANY. 

saniis  read  to  him  the  31st  Psalm  and  17th  chapter  of 
John.  He  then  prayed  aloud,  and  filled  with  joy  and 
peace,  he  breathed  out  his  soul  to  God. 

Frederick  was  one  of  the  greatest  princes  the  Palat- 
inate ever  had.  Indeed,  he  was  one  of  the  noblest  and 
purest  princes  of  Germany.  He  well  deserved  the  name 
of  *  pious.'  He  had  great  executive  ability,  was  very 
economical  in  his  court  expenses,  saving  from  them 
twenty  thousand  dollars  a  year  that  he  might  spend  it 
for  schools  and  churches.  He  erected  no  fine  architec- 
tural buildings,  except  that  he  completed  the  Otto  Hen- 
ry's building  at  the  castle,  which  had  been  left  uncom- 
pleted by  Otto  Henry's  untimely  death.  As  he  built 
no  forts,  he  was  taken  to  task  about  it.  He  answered  : 
"  A  mighty  fortress  is  our  God."  During  his  reign  of 
seventeen  years  he  had  no  wars  of  his  own.  His  land 
flourished,  for  he  was  a  just  and  wise  ruler,  and  kind  to 
his  subjects.  But  over  and  above  all  his  graces,  his 
piety  shone.  He  was  one  of  the  most  pious  princes  of 
that  age  of  pious  princes.  He  was  to  the  Palatinate 
what  Frederick  the  Wise  had  been  to  Saxony,  and 
Kings  Alfred  and  Edward  VI.  were  to  England.  His 
Church  was  his  great  love.  The  Reformed  Church  will 
ever  cherish  his  memory.  He  left  a  will,  in  which  was 
found  his  confession  of  faith,  which  was  afterwards 
appended  by  publishers  to  the  Confession  of  the  Palat- 
inate.    Before  the  gate  of  the  town  of  Simmern,  where 


ME^IO RIALS    TO    HIS    MEMORY.  231 

he  introduced  Protestantism  before  he  became  Elector 
of  the  Palatinate,  there  has  long  existed,  as  a  monument 
to  his  memory,  a  beautiful  orphans'  asylum.  But  his 
name  will  ever  be  embalmed  in  his  Heidelberg  cate- 
chism, and  loved  and  honored  by  those  who  love  and 
honor  it. 


CHAPTER  III. 

The  Origin  of  the  Reformed  Church  in  West- 
ern Germany. 

SECTION  I. 

Elector  Lewis  and  his  Persecution  of  the  Reformed  in  the 
Palatinate,  1576—83. 

After  the  death  of  Elector  Frederick  III.,  his  son, 
Elector  Lewis,  re-introduced  Lutheranism  into  the  Pa- 
latinate. Lewis  was  as  strong  a  Lutheran  as  his  father 
had  been  a  Calvinist.  He  inherited  much  of  the  relig- 
ious disposition  that  had  characterized  his  father,  only 
it  was  turned  into  a  different  direction.  His  early  train- 
ing had  been  Lutheran  ;  for  his  father  did  not  go  over 
to  the  Reformed  faith,  until  after  Lewis  had  grown  to 
manhood.  Trained  up  in  Lutheran  courts,  he  became 
an  intense  Lutheran.  And  circumstances  favored  his 
growth  in  Lutheranism.  After  his  father  had  become 
Elector  of  the  Palatinate,  he  was  made  governor  of  the 
Upper  Palatinate  at  Amberg.  There  he  found  the 
people  intensely  Lutheran,  and  he  came  into  fullest 
sympathy    with    them.     His   wife,    a  daughter   of  the 


FIRST    EFFORTS   OF    LEWIS.  233 

Landgrave  of  Hesse,  was  a  strong  Lutheran.     Thus  he 
was  surrounded  on   all   sides    by   Lutheran   influences. 
He  entered  on  his  office  as  Elector  with  the  intention  of 
purging  the   Palatinate  of  its    Calvinism.     He   would 
convert  the  Palatinate  back  to  Lutheranism  aojain.     He 
found,  however,   this  diiference ;   that  when   Frederick 
went  over  to  the  Reformed  faith,  the  great  mass  of  the 
people  in  the  Lower  Palatinate  sympathized  and  went 
with  him.     But  when  Lewis  undertook  to  re-convert  it, 
he  found  the  great  mass  of  the  people  satisfied  with  their 
Calvinism  and   reluctant  to  go  back  to  Lutheranism. 
Lewis  did  not  wait   long   before  he    began  to  show  his 
Lutheran    zeal.       While    his  father    was    lying  on  his 
death-bed,    Lewis    would    not   come  to  see  him.      His 
religious  fanaticism  overcame  his  filial  love       He  was 
afraid  to  come,  for  fear   his   father   would    make   him 
promise  to  leave  the  Reformed  religion,    undisturbed. 
But,  fourteen  days  after  his  father's  death,   he  came  to 
Heidelberg.       His  first  act   was  to  refuse  to  allow  any 
Reformed  minister  to  conduct  his  father's  funeral.     Al- 
though   the   court-preachers   of   Heidelberg   knew   his 
father  so  well,  and  were  best  fitted  to  speak  of  his  fath- 
er's virtues  ;  yet  Lewis  would   not   permit  it.     He  said 
he  did  not  want  his  father's   funeral  to  be   polluted  by 
a  Calvinist.     Lewis  also  seemed  to  have  had  some  per- 
sonal feeling  against  the  court-preachers  of  his  father, 
Olevianus  and  Tossanus  ;  for   both  of  them  had  taken 
16 


234         THE    REFORMED    CHURCH    OF    GERMANY. 

part  in  trying  to  convert  the  Upper  Palatinate,  where 
he  had  lived,  to  the  Reformed  faith.  Lewis  sympathized 
with  the  Lutherans  there ;  and  to  revenge  himself  on 
these  ministers,  he  would  not  allow  them  to  speak  at 
his  father's  funeral.  He  ordered  Paul  Schecksius,  his 
own  Lutheran  court-preacher,  whom  he  brought  with 
him  from  Amberg,  to  preach  the  funeral  sermon.  Tos- 
sanus,  however,  at  the  request  of  the  Electress,  preached 
a  funeral  discourse  on  Isaiah  51  :  1,  2,  on  the  day  after 
the  funeral,  in  the  Holy  Ghost  church.  This  special 
service  was  attended  by  the  court,  but  Lewis  was  not 
there,  because  he  would  not  officially  sanction  the  Re- 
formed faith  or  listen  to  a  Reformed  preacher.  This 
act  caused  a  breach  in  the  Electoral  family.  If  Lewis 
would  not  go  to  a  Reformed  service,  then  Casiniir  de- 
termined he  would  not  attend  a  Lutheran  service.  This 
act  of  Lewis  was  only  the  precursor  of  other  high-handed 
proceedings  against  the  Reformed.  The  consistory, 
then  composed  of  Reformed,  was  forbidden  to  fill  any 
vacancies,  lest  they  might  import  any  Reformed  preach- 
ers into  the  land.  Booksellers  were  forbidden  to  print 
or  sell  Reformed  books.  Lewis  was  especially  severe 
in  his  wrath  against  Olevianus ;  because  Olevianus  had 
done  so  much  toward  converting  his  father  to  Calvin- 
ism, and  because  Olevianus  had  tried  to  convert  the 
Upper  Palatinate  from  Lutheranism.  Olevianus  was 
})ut  out  of  the   consistory,    forbidden  to  preach,   placed 


REINTRODUCTION    OF    LUTHERANISM.  235 

under  house-arrest,   and  forbidden  to  hold   meetings  in 
his  house,  or  to  talk  witli  the  people  or  corresi)ond  with 
the  learned.      Thus    Lewis   treated   the  man   who  had 
been  his  father's  favorite.       Lewis  did  not  treat   Olevi- 
anus  very  much  better  than  did  the  Elector  of  Treves,  a 
Catholic,  who  had   imprisoned  him  at   Treves   for  the 
same  cause  (because  he  was  a  Calvinist).     Two  months 
after  he  had  arrived  at  Heidelberg,  Lewis  left  Heidel- 
berg to  go  to  Amberg,  that  he  might  receive  the  Elec- 
toral hat.     When  he  arrived  at  Amberg,  he  summarily 
dismissed  the  Reformed  ministers  stationed  there  by  his 
father,  and  re-introduced  all  the  old  usages  of  high  Lu- 
theranism.       Pictures    were    brought    back    into    the 
churches.     The  altars,  which  Frederick  had  torn  out  of 
the  church,  were  re-instated.    Wafers  were  re-introduced. 
The  Reformed  people  at  Heidelberg  felt  that  a  change 
was  coming.     So  they  tried    to   avert   its   severity,    by 
sending  a  petition  to  Lewis  at  Amberg,  asking  that  the 
people  of  Heidelberg  be  given    freedom  to  worship  ac- 
cording to  the  Reformed  faith  ;  and  offering  to  give  to 
the  Lutherans  the  church  of  the  Holy  Ghost,  the  largest 
church  at  Heidelberg,  if  the  Reformed  would  be  allowed 
to  retain    the   St.    Peter's    and    Franciscan    churches. 
Prince  Casimir,  whom  Lewis  had  left  as  his  representa- 
tive at  Heidelberg  during  his  absence,  endorsed  this  pe- 
tition.    But  the  Elector  returned  it  with  a  rebuke,  and 
refused  it.     While  the  Elector  was  absent,  Casimir  had 


236         THE    JIEFORMED    CHURCH    OF   GERMANY. 

Reformed  church-service  in  the  castle  chapel,  under  Tos- 
sanus ;  for  which  Tossanus  was  afterward  rebuked  by 
Lewis.  At  the  March  communion  the  Reformed  min- 
isters urged  the  people  to  come  to  the  communion,  as  it 
might  be  the  last  time  the  Lord's  supper  would  be  ad- 
ministered after  the  Reformed  custom.  Their  expecta- 
tions came  true.  For  on  the  fourth  of  April  the  Elec- 
tor came  back  to  Heidelberg ;  and  then  began  a  whole- 
sale re-introduction  of  Lutheranism.  One  of  his  first  ef- 
forts was  to  dispossess  the  Reformed,  of  the  Holy  Ghost 
and  St.  Peter's  churches.  The  only  church  left  to  the 
Reformed  was  the  Franciscan  church,  which  was  far  too 
small ;  and  it  was  soon  taken  away.  The  Reformed  min- 
isters were  dismissed.  Tossanus  had  to  leave  the  city. 
On  the  twenty-first  of  April,  Lewis  and  his  court  atten- 
ded service  at  St.  Peter's  church,  where  the  court-preacher 
formally  announced  the  introduction  of  the  true  faith — 
Lutheranism  On  the  same  day  the  Reformed  members 
of  the  court,  Count  Lewis  of  Wittgenstein,  and  also 
Ehem,  were  dismissed.  Count  Lewis  of  Wittgenstein 
became  very  severe  against  Lewis.  He  compared  him 
to  Julian  the  Apostate,  and  prophesied  his  early  fate. 
Count  Lewis  left  Heidelberg,  but  afterward  requested 
that  Olevianus  might  go  with  him  to  Berleberg,  which 
was  granted.  The  Franciscan  church  was  taken  from 
the  Reformed,  and  the  French  Reformed  congregation 
were  put  out  of  the  aula  of  the  university  where  they 


REINTRODUCTION    OF    I.UTHERANISM.  237 

had  worshipped.  The  Electress  and  Prince  Casirair 
were  so  aggrieved  by  Lewis'  persecution,  that  they  left 
the  palace.  All  the  old  rites  of  Lutheranism,  which 
Frederick  had  so  strongly  opposed,  were  now  re-intro- 
duced, after  eighteen  years  of  banishment.  The  priests 
sang  the  liturgies  at  the  altar.  The  wafer  took  the  place 
of  broken  bread  ;  the  altar  was  adorned  with  candles,  and 
many  pictures  were  introduced  in  the  niches  and  on  the 
walls.  Lewis  also  filled  the  consistory  with  Lutherans. 
Paul  Schecksius,  Kirchner  and  Schopper  were  the  cler- 
ical members  of  it.  The  Lutheran  office  of  superinten- 
dent, which  his  father  had  abolished  after  his  experience 
with  Hesshuss,  was  re-established.  And  Peter  Patiens 
was  appointed  to  that  place  at  the  head  of  the  consistory. 
Marbach  ^vas  called  from  Strasburg  in  1577  to  help 
Lutheranize  the  Palatinate.  A  new  Lutheran  church 
order,  based  on  Otto  Henry's,  was  now  published.  The 
Reformed  ministers  were  everywhere  dismissed,  and  Lu- 
therans put  in  their  places.  It  is  safe  to  say  that  six 
hundred  ministers  lost  their  positions,  and  many  of  them 
were  brought  to  want  by  their  summary  dismissal. 
Funds  were  raised  for  their  help  in  Switzerland,  but  the 
funds  were  small,  compared  with  their  need.  The  Re- 
formed teachers  were  in  some  places  driven  out,  with 
their  families,  into  the  street,  and  chased  as  criminals. 
And  as  Lutheran  ministers  could  not  be  gotten  fast 
enough  to  fill  the  vacancies,  the  Elector  preferred  leav- 


238         THE    REFORMED    CHURCH    OF   GERMANY. 

iDg  their  places  vacant,  rather  than  have  the  Reformed 
preachers  preach  their  heresy  any  longer.  Under  his 
severe  Lutheranism,  the  schools  in  the  Palatinate  began 
to  decline.  But  the  university  was  spared  a  little  longer. 
Finally  Boquin,  Zanchius  and  Tremellius,  the  theolog- 
ical professors,  were  ordered  to  leave  town.  The  whole 
university  then,  in  spite  of  theological  differences,  ap- 
pealed to  the  Elector  for  these  professors,  reminding  him 
that  they  had  done  nothing  contrary  to  the  Augsburg 
Confession.  But  all  their  appeals  were  in  vain.  Bo- 
quin  and  Zanchius  became  so  poor,  that  money  had  to  be 
raised  to  send  them  away.  Such  was  Boquin's  reward, 
after  eighteen  years  of  faithful  service  at  Heidelberg. 
Ursinus,  after  the  closing  of  the  Sapienz  College,  re- 
ceived his  dismissal.  The  people  of  the  Rhenish  Palat- 
inate, however,  in  spite  of  the  loss  of  these  leaders,  re- 
mained true  to  their  faith. 

Prince  Casimir,  disgusted  with  his  brother's  bigotry, 
left  Heidelberg  and  retired  to  the  estates  left  him  by 
his  father  at  Bockenheim,  Kaiserlautern  and  Neustadt. 
This  little  land  became  an  asylum  for  the  persecuted 
Reformed  of  the  Palatinate.  The  Electress  left  Hei- 
delberg soon  after,  because  Lewis  would  not  allow  her 
to  retain  her  Reformed  court-preacher.  The  little  town 
of  Neustadt  became  to  the  Reformed,  what  Amberg  had 
been  to  the  Lutherans  of  the  Palatinate  under  Freder- 
ick.    The  prominent  Reformed   teachers  of  Heidelberg 


RISE   OF    NEUSTADT.  239 

came  to  Neustadt,  after  their  dismissal  from  the  Palat- 
inate. Ursinus,  when  dismissed,  thought  of  going  to 
Worms  to  his  friend  Eccolius.  But  the  hatred  of  the 
Lutherans  at  Worms  deterred  him.  He  expected  a  call 
from  Berne.  His  native  town  of  Breslau  gave  him  a 
call.  But  his  mild,  sensative  nature  led  him  to  refuse 
to  get  into  any  further  controversies  in  his  native  city. 
So,  when  Casimir  urged  him  to  come  to  Neustadt,  he 
finally  went  there.  Olevianus  had  already  gone  to 
Berleberg  to  Count  Lewis  of  Wittgenstein.  (Since  the 
Erastian  controversy  at  Heidelberg,  Casimir,  who  dif- 
fered with  Olevianus  about  discipline,  was  not  so  favor- 
able to  him  as  he  was  to  Ursinus.) 

Prince  Casimir  then  determined  to  found  a  school 
at  Neustadt,  which  should  be  a  nursery  for  the  Re- 
formed faith,  and  a  bulwark  against  the  Lutherans  of 
Heidelberg.  At  a  synod,  held  at  Neustadt,  March, 
1578,  the  Reformed  ministers  endorsed  the  plan  of  a 
school,  w^th  great  joy.  There  had  been  a  nunnery  be- 
fore the  gate  of  Neustadt,  called  the  White  Hermitage. 
This  building  Casimir  took  for  a  school,  which  was 
called  after  him,  the  Casirairium.*  Ursinus,  Zanchius 
and  Tossanus  were  made  the  theological  teachers.  The 
Casimirium,  by  the  second  year,  became  so  prosperous, 
that  it  not  only  rivaled,  but  eclipsed  Heidelberg  univer- 

■•■•The  building  is  still  standing  at  Neustadt,  and  is  now  used 
as  a  school. 


240         THE   REFORMED   CHURCH   OF   GERMANY. 

sity.  For  the  most  renowned  professors  at  Heidelberg 
had  come  to  Neustadt.  What  was  loss  to  Heidelberg, 
was  gain  to  Neustadt.  Ursinus  lectured  on  Isaiah,  and 
wTote  his  notes  on  the  catechism.  The  little  town  of 
Neustadt  became  a  centre  of  influence  and  place  of 
honor  throughout  all  Europe.  Students  from  England, 
France  and  Poland  came  to  it  to  study  ;  while  English 
embassadors,  and  French  and  Polish  agents,  alike  came 
to  concert  diplomatic  measures  about  Calvinism. 

Meanwhile  a  very  important  event  was  taking  place 
in  Germany,  which  prepared  that  country  for  a  fuller 
reception  of  the  Reformed  faith.  It  was  the  composi- 
tion and  adoption  of  the  Formula  of  Concord.  Although 
the  Formula  of  Concord  does  not  really  belong  to  Re- 
formed church  history ;  yet  it  had  such  an  influence  in 
preparing  large  parts  of  Germany  for  the  Reformed 
faith,  that  a  brief  description  of  it  is  necessary. 

The  Lutherans  had  by  this  time  become  tired  of 
their  strifes,  and  desired  a-  union.  Andrea,  the  Chan- 
cellor of  Tubingen  and  leader  of  the  Wurtemberg  Lu- 
theran Church,  was  the  leader  of  this  movement.  High 
Lutheranism  had  by  this  time  pretty  well  routed  out 
low  Lutheranism  and  Melancthonianism.  After  Me- 
lancthon's  death,  no  great  theological  leader  appeared 
in  their  party.  Many  of  the  princes  were  still  Melanc- 
thonians,  but  the  theologians  were  high  Lutheran  and 
had  gone  over  to  the   doctrine  of  ubiquity.      The    time 


FORMULA   OF   CONCORD.  241 

was  ripe  for  a  new  Lutheran  confession.  The  Crypto- 
Calvinists  had  been  driven  out  of  Saxony  ;  and  South 
Germany  in  Wurtemberg  now  joined  hand  in  hand  with 
North  Germany  in  Saxony,  in  the  interest  of  high  Lu- 
theran ism.  A  preliminary  confession  was  prepared  in 
1576,  called  the  Torgau  book,  which  was  sent  around 
among  the  princes  and  theologians  for  suggestions.  It 
was  found  that  even  among  the  high  Lutherans  there 
was  a  difference  on  the  doctrine  of  ubiquity.  Andrea 
held  to  absolute  ubiquity  or  omnipresence  of  Christ's 
body ;  Chemnitz,  a  more  moderate  Lutheran  and  a  pru- 
dent admirer  of  Melancthon,  believed  in  a  relative  ubi- 
quity or  multipresence  of  Christ\s  body.*  The  leading 
Lutheran  theologians  of  Germany  came  together  at  the 
monastery  of  Bergen  near  Magdeburg,  and  then  pre- 
pared the  new  Lutheran  creed,  called  the  Formula  of 
Concord,  on  the  28th  of  May,  1577.  It  was  the  highest 
of  the  Lutheran  symbols,  and  everywhere  opposed  the 
Melancthonian  doctrines.  It  opposed  synergism  by 
saying,  that,  since  the  fall  of  man,  not  a  spec  of  spiritual 
power  remained  in  man.  He  was  as  helpless  as  a  stone. 
And  yet,  on  this  point  it  escaped  Calvinism,  by  saying 
that,  while  man  has  no  power  to  save  himself,  he  yet 
has  power  to  refuse  salvation.  On  predestination  it 
escaped  Calvinism,  by  saying  that  salvation  is  the  object 

*" The  expression  'ubiquity'   is  not  used  in  any  Lutheran 
church  symbol." — Herzog. 


242         THE   REFORMED    CHURCH   OF   GERMANY. 

of  divine  predestination,  but  damnation  is  the  result  of 
divine  foreknowledge.  It  rejected  Calvin's  doctrine  of 
the  Lord's  supper,  as  well  as  his  predestination.  And 
it  added,  to  the  old  Lutheran  doctrine  of  the  real  bodily 
presence  of  Christ  at  the  supper,  the  additional  doctrine 
of  Christ's  ubiquity.  It  also  condemned  Calvinism  by 
name,  in  this  respect  going  farther  than  the  Augsburg 
Confession.  ^'The  Formula  of  Concord  was  more  doc- 
trinal than  popular,  more  scholastic  than  fervid.  It 
was  the  ripe  dogmatic  product  of  Lutheranism,  as  the 
Westminster  Confession  was  of  high  Calvinism."  It, 
however,  lacked  the  popularity  of  Luther's  catechism 
and  of  the  Augsburg  Confession  ;  and  one  misses  in  it 
the  unction  and  devotion  found  in  the  Heidelbero;  cate- 
chism. 

An  organized  effort  was  then  made  to  introduce  the 
Formula  of  Concord  into  all  the  states  of  Germany. 
The  Elector  of  Saxony,  who  was  the  god-father  of  it, 
sent  a  commission  through  all  Saxony ;  and  in  all  the 
cities  the  preachers  and  teachers  were  gathered,  the  For- 
mula of  Concord  was  read  before  them,  and  they  were 
asked  to  adopt  it.  Deputations  were  sent  through  all 
the  lands  of  Germany  to  the  princely  families,  urging 
the  adoption  of  the  Formula  of  Concord.  This  effort 
•went  on;  until  by  1580,  three  Electors,  twenty-one 
Dukes,  twenty-two  Counts,  thirty-five  free  cities,  in  all 
eighty-six  states  of  the  Empire,    had  adopted  it.     Nine 


OPPOSITION    TO   THE    FORMULA.  243 

thousand  preachers  and  teachers  and  twelve  thousand 
churches  had  adopted  it.  It  was  introduced  into  Sax- 
ony, Brandenberg,  Luneburg,  Mecklenberg,  Wurtem- 
berg,  Baden,  Hamburg  and  Lubeck.  Its  success  at 
first  was  so  great  that  a  general  synod  of  all  Germany 
was  talked  of,  to  adopt  it  and  to  make  it  the  creed  of 
all  Germany.  But  it  soon  became  evident  that  that 
would  not  be  wise.  For  a  reaction  set  in  against  it. 
The  Formula  of  Concord  became,  as  Hospinian  calls  it, 
'  an  apple  of  discord.'  While  most  of  the  princes  signed 
it,  quite  a  number  refused  to  sign  it.  Some  good  Luth- 
eran princes  refused  to  have  anything  to  do  with  it,  as 
they  clung  to  the  old  Lutheranism  of  the  Augsburg 
Confession.  Count  Richard  of  Simmern  in  the  Palat- 
inate, a  strict  Lutheran,  refused  to  have  anything  to  do 
with  it.  The  sister  of  the  King  of  Denmark,  the  Elec- 
tress  of  Saxony,  sent  to  the  King  of  Denmark  two  beau- 
tifully bound  copies  of  the  Formula  of  Concord,  and 
asked  him  to  examine  it  and  adopt  it.  Frederick,  the 
king,  in  a  restless  night  which  he  spent  at  the  castle  at 
Antworskon,  took  both  books  and  threw  them  into  the 
chamber  fire,  so  that  no  specimen  of  this  destructive 
book  should  be  found  in  his  dominion.*  In  Holsteiu, 
the  Formula  of  Concord  was  forbidden,  under  pain  of 
death.     The  states  of  Hesse,  An  halt,   Nassau,  Pomera- 

*The  King  of  Denmark,  although  he  was  a  foreign  king,  yet 
had  a  share  in  the  German  politics,  as  he  was  the  Duke  of 
Schleswig  Holstein. 


244         THE    REFORMED   CHURCH    OF   GERMANY. 

Ilia,  Saxe-LuDeberg,  Zweibriicken,  and  the  free  cities  of 
Bremen,  Nuremberg  and  Strasburg,  repudiated  it.  But, 
while  they  rejected  it  for  being  too  high  Lutheran, 
Hamburg  and  Lubeck  declared  it  was  not  high  Luth- 
eran enough  for  them.  Even  the  Duke  of  Brunswick, 
the  friend  of  Chemnitz,  one  of  its  authors,  finally  refused 
to  sign  it.  Andrea  went  from  court  to  court  to  have  it 
signed.  Some  of  the  princes  refused  point  blank  to 
sign  it.  Others  objected  to  the  clause  in  it  that  con- 
demned the  Calvinists.  The  Formula  of  Concord  made 
the  last  great  break  in  the  unity  of  Germany. 

And  now  at  length  Calvinism  prepared  its  reply  to 
Lutheranism.  Prince  Casimir  of  the  Palatinate,  from 
his  little  town  of  Neustadt,  began  this  movement.  He 
aimed  at  nothing  less  than  a  union  of  all  the  Reformed 
states  of  Europe,  including  France,  England,  Holland, 
&c.,  against  this  excommunication,  which  the  Formula 
of  Concord  gave  to  all  Calvinists.  Fortunately  the 
Queen  of  England  seconded  his  designs.  She  had,  at 
the  conference  at  Naumberg  in  1561,  greeted  the  Ger- 
mans as  *  brethren  in  the  faith/  She  had  already  sent 
her  ambassador.  Sir  Phillip  Sydney,  to  Germany,  to 
suggest  the  union  of  all  Protestant  nations.  He  visited 
Elector  Lewis  of  the  Palatinate,  Landgrave  Phillip  of 
Hesse,  and  Prince  Casimir.  The  queen  saw  the  danger 
of  disunion,  caused  by  the  Formula  of  Concord.  She 
was  very  much  aggrieved  by  the  Formula  of  Concord, 


CONFERENCE  AT  FRANKFORD.        245 

because  of  that  clause  in  it,  that  condemned  all  Calvin- 
ists.  Proud  queen  that  she  was,  she  was  not  accus- 
tomed to  being  condemned.  And  she  seemed  to  con- 
sider that  clause  as  referring  especially  to  herself.  Casi- 
mir  entered  heartily  into  the  plans  of  Queen  Elizabeth 
of  England.  During  the  summer  of  1577  his  agents 
went  through  all  the  Reformed  countries  to  work  up 
this  union  of  the  Reformed  lands  against  the  Formula  of 
Concord.  A  convention  of  the  Reformed  was  appointed 
at  Frankford.  This  convention,  the  like  of  which  had 
never  before  assembled,  met  September  27,  1577.  It 
was  the  first  meeting  of  the  Reformed  alliance,  which 
was  afterward  consummated  in  the  nineteenth  century  ; 
or  rather,  it  was  an  Evangelical  alliance,  formed,  how- 
ever, only  of  Reformed  denominations.  From  the 
French  Reformed  Church  appeared  Lewis  Capellus  and 
Jacob  Coetius.  The  Queen  of  England  was  represented 
by  Daniel  Roger  and  Flubert  Languet ;  the  King  of 
Navarre,  by  Francis  De  La  Personne ;  the  Priuce  of 
Conde,  by  Vicomte  d'Argentine.  From  Poland  and 
Hungary  appeared  Thuetius  and  Pratorius  ;  from  Hol- 
land, John  Junius  ;  from  the  Palatinate,  Zanchius.  The 
Bohemian  and  Swiss  Ciiurches  were  not  represented  by 
delegates  ;  but  they  sent  letters,  stating  that  they  would 
be  satisfied  with  whatever  the  conference  would  decide 
upon.  Zuleger,  the  c(nincillor  of  Casimir,  opened  the 
conference  and  announced  its  objects,  which   were  three 


246         THE    REFORMED    CHURCH    OF    GERMANY. 

— first,  how  the  new  doctrine  of  ubiquity  could  be 
checked  ;  second,  if  it  were  best  to  draw  up  a  new  con- 
fession, on  which  the  Reformed  Churches  could  unite  ; 
third,  if  such  were  found  necessary,  how  it  was  to  be 
done,  how  spread  abroad  among  the  Churches,  and  how 
signed  by  them.  The  conference  decided  that  a  com- 
mon confession  of  faith  to  offset  the  Formula  of  Con- 
cord was  desirable.  Ursinus  and  Zanchius  were  ap- 
pointed to  draw  up  such  a  creed.  This  was  to  be  done 
in  conjunction  with  a  theologian  appointed  by  the 
Queen  of  England.  The  first  draft  of  it  was  to  be 
sent  to  Gualthier  at  Zurich,  and  Beza  at  Geneva.  Prince 
Casimir  agreed  to  attend  to  the  printing  of  not  more 
than  one  hundred  copies,  which  were  to  be  sent  to  the 
different  Reformed  Churches. 

The  deputies  were  to  call  a  second  conference  in  the 
summer  of  1578,  to  revise  this  confession  and  to  declare 
it  the  common  creed  of  the  Church.  Ursinus,  old, 
timid  and  sick,  however  declined  to  attempt  writing 
such  a  confession.  Zanchius  attemped  it  alone,  after 
having  gained  the  consent  of  the  Swiss  to  this  course. 
His  work  was  received  with  approbation  at  Geneva. 
But  in  the  meantime  the  sentiment  in  regard  to  a  new 
confession  changed.  A  desire  grew  up  in  the  Reformed 
Churches  to  have  a  harmony  of  all  the  existing  Reform- 
ed confessions,  rather  than  to  have  a  new  confession  pre- 
pared.    Salnar  prepared  this  harmony  of  the  confessions 


CONFERENCE    AT    FRANKFORD.  247 

in  1581.  TIlis  liarmony  contains  the  first  and  second 
Helvetic  Confessions,  the  Basle,  Bohemian,  Gallic,  An- 
glican, Belgic,  Augsburg,  Saxon,  Wurtemburg  and 
Suevian.  The  second  Helvetic  is  given  the  first  place, 
because  it  was  the  most  generally  received  of  all  the 
Reformed  confessions  at  that  time.  This  was  the  first 
union  document  or  consensus  of  the  Reformed  faith  that 
was  published.  So  the  times  outgrew  Zanchius'  con- 
fession, and  it  was  not  adopted.  The  Swiss,  too,  saw 
no  reason  why  the  second  Helvetic  Confession,  already 
acknowledged  by  most  of  the  Reformed  Churches,  should 
not  be  the  confession  on  which  they  might  all  unite. 
Zanchius  then  made  the  confession  he  prepared,  his 
own  and  his  family's  in  1586  ;  that  he  might  leave  be- 
hind him  a  picture  of  his  faith.  He  dedicated  it  to 
Count  Ulric  of  Martinengo  of  Venice. 

This  conference  at  Frankford  also  took  action  on  its 
other  object,  namely,  the  hindering  of  the  spread  of  the 
Formula  of  Concord.  It  appointed  a  deputation  to  go 
from  court  to  court  in  Germany  and  show  to  the  Luth- 
eran princes  the  dangers  of  division  between  the  Re- 
formed and  the  Lutherans,  caused  by  the  damnatory 
clause  in  the  Formula  of  Concord.  This  embassy  was 
headed  by  Belus  and  the  eminent  Dutch  lawyer,  Knib- 
bius.  The  conference  also  ordered  Hubert  Languet, 
who  had  been  for  many  years  employed  among  the 
statesmen   of  Germany,  and  who  knew  the  situation  in 


248         THE    REFORMED   CHURCH    OF   GERMANY. 

Germany,  to  draw  up  a  letter  of  admonition  to  be  pre- 
sented  by  this  delegation   to  the  German  princes.     He 
wrote  an  exceedingly  able  and  judicious  document.     In 
it  all  harsh  words  are  avoided,  the  differences  between 
the  Reformed  and  the  Lutherans  thrown  in  the  back- 
ground and  the  advantages  of  unity  dwelt  upon.     The 
paper  reminded  the  Lutherans,  of  Papal  and  Jesuit  in- 
trigues in  France,  Spain  and  Holland,  and  of  the  danger 
that  would  come  from   division  between  the  Reformed 
and  Lutherans ;  and  also,  that  the  safety  of  Germany 
lay  in   unity.     This  embassy  travelled   from  court  to 
court  in   Germany,   presenting  its  case  to  the  princes. 
But  the  Lutheran  party-spirit  was  blind.     Evasive  an- 
swers  were  given  the  delegation.     There  was,   as  Hos- 
pinian  says,  "nothing  given  it  but  beautiful  phrases  and 
rich  banquets."     And  yet  this  embassy  was  not  without 
its  effect.     Denmark,  then   the  ruler  of  Holstein,   was 
stirred  up  by  the  Queen  of  England  against  the  Formu- 
la of  Concord.     Hesse  and  Anhalt  more  decidedly  than 
ever  refused  to  sign  it. 

This  embassy  very  decidedly  affected  Elector  Lewis 
oi  the  Palatinate.  Before  it  came,  he  had  been  an  in- 
tense Lutheran ;  but  now  he  became  moderate.  Lewis 
halted  for  a  long  time  before  signing  the  Formula  of 
Concord.  The  Landgrave  of  Hesse  urged  him  not  to 
sign  it,  while  the  Electors  of  Saxony  and  Brandenberg 
urged  him  to  sign  it.     He  was  opposed  to  the  clause  in 


LEWIS    AND   THE    FORMULA.  249 

it  that  condemned  the  Calvinists.  At  length,  after  it 
had  been  slightly  revised,  he  signed  it,  but  he  found  the 
revision  so  slight,  that  he  never  entered  heartily  into  its 
introduction  into  his  land.  The  people  of  the  Palatinate 
were  bitterly  opposed  to  it.  Lewis,  after  urging  the 
professors  at  Heidelberg  to  sign  it,  finding  they  would 
not  do  it,  allowed  them  to  retain  their  places  ;  provided 
they  would  outwardly  be  Lutheran,  occasionally  attend 
Lutheran  church  and  allow  their  children  to  be  brought 
up  in  the  Lutheran  faith.  But  he  could  not  stop  the 
reaction  against  the  Formula  of  Concord  in  his  land. 
Prominent  men,  like  Fauth,  vice  chancellor,  went  over 
to  Calvinism.  The  high  Lutherans  urged  him  to  have 
a  house  to  house  visitation,  so  as  to  get  all  to  assent  to 
the  Formula  of  Concord.  But  Lewis  refused  such  an 
inquisition.  He  refused  to  be  led  by  his  ministers  to  such 
extreme  measures.  He  became  more  lenient  toward  the 
Reformed  as  time  advanced.  His  wife  died,  and  in  her 
he  lost  his  strongest  Lutheran  support.  Later  he  final- 
ly told  the  Margrave  of  Baden,  that  if  he  had  not  signed 
the  Formula  of  Concord,  he  would  not  do  so  now. 

This  Formula  of  Concord  had  a  most  disastrous 
effect  on  Germany.  Its  intense,  bigoted,  high  Lutheran- 
ism  split  Germany  into  two  parts.  Its  evil  results 
showed  themselves  down  to  the  end  of  the  Thirty 
Years'  War  in  1648.  The  immediate  effect  of  it  was  dis- 
astrous. Elector  Gebhard  Truchsess  of  Cologne  had 
17 


250         THE   REFORMED    CHURCH    OF   GERMANY. 

changed  his  faith  and  become  Protestant.  He  hoped  to 
carry  the  Electorate  of  Cologne  with  him.  He  might 
have  been  able  to  do  so,  had  he  been  supported  by  the 
German  princes.  But  the  Formula  of  Concord  made 
the  Lutheran  princes  either  lukewarm  or  opposed  to 
him,  because  he  inclined  to  the  Reformed  faith.  The 
Elector  of  Saxony  refused  to  send  any  troops  to  his 
assistance.  The  result  was  that  a  large  part  of  the 
Rhine  region  was  lost  to  Protestantism  ;  for  the  Catho- 
lics came  in  with  their  troops  and  overcame  this  weak 
effort  of  Gebhard.  And  the  fourth  Electorate  of  Ger- 
many, which  would  have  given  the  Protestants  a  major- 
ity in  the  Electoral  college,  was  lost  to  Protestantism. 
It  is  a  wonder  that  the  German  princes,  having  seen 
their  mistake  forty  years  before,  when  they  allowed 
Elector  Herman  of  Cologne  to  be  defeated,  should  re- 
peat that  mistake  in  the  case  of  his  successor,  Gebhard. 
And  this  was  only  the  beginning  of  the  weakness  of 
Protestantism,  due  to  the  division  between  the  Reformed 
and  Lutherans,  caused  largely  by  the  Formula  of  Con- 
cord. 

The  last  event  of  importance  to  us  that  occurred  dur- 
ing the  life  of  Lewis,  was  the  death  of  Ursinus  at  Neu- 
stadt.  Ursinus  lived  quietly  at  Neustadt  as  an  unwear- 
ied student.  Over  the  door  of  his  room  was  the  motto  : 
"  Friend,  whoever  you  may  be,  when  you  come  to  me, 
make  the  matter  short,  or  leave   soon,   or  assist  me  at 


DEATH   OF   URSINUS.  251 

my  work."  His  health  gradually  failed.  His  old  disease 
of  melancholy  returned  to  him.  He  died  March  6, 
1583,  trusting  in  God.  The  first  answer  of  his  Heidel- 
berg Catechism  is  the  key  to  his  peaceful,  religious  ex- 
perience. Christ  was  his  comfort  in  life  and  death. 
He  would  not  take  a  hundred  thousand  worlds  for  the 
assurance  of  faith,  that  was  his.  He  was  buried  in  the 
choir  of  the  church  at  Neustadt.  The  tomb  bore  the 
inscription,  '^  A  great  theologian,  a  victor  over  the  errors 
concerning  the  person  of  Christ  and  the  Lord's  supper, 
gifted  with  mighty  words  and  a  mighty  pen,  a  keen- 
sighted  philosopher,  a  wise  man,  a  mighty  teacher  of 
the  youth."  He  was  a  modern  Thomas  d  Kempis,  a 
man  of  books  and  prayer  with  God.  He  left  but  one 
son  ;  but  there  were  to  him  many  spiritual  sons,  who 
followed  him  as  the  leaders  of  the  Reformed  Church  in 
the  succeeding  generation.  His  theological  tendency  is 
shown  in  his  scholars,  some  of  whom  became  the  leaders 
of  the  high  Calvinistic  party,  as  Gomarus  and  Lybrand. 
His  works  were  afterward  published  by  Parens,  printed 
by  Harnish,  in  three  folio  volumes.  But  his  spirit  is 
immortal ;  for  he  still  lives  in  the  Heidelberg  Catechism, 
and  in  the  hearts  of  those  to  whom  the  Heidelberg  Cat- 
echism is  dear. 

The  Elector  Lewis  died  not  long  after  Ursinus.  On 
the  12th  of  October,  1583,  after  a  reign  of  seven  years, 
Lewis  passed  away,  and  with  him  passed  away  the  rule 


252         THE    REFORMED   CHURCH   OF   GERMANY. 

of  Lutheranism  in  the  Palatinate.  He  left  behind  him 
a  son,  Frederick,  (afterward  Frederick  IV.  of  the  Pa- 
latinate,) then  only  nine  years  old.  Lewis'  father  had 
prophesied,  "  Lewis  will  not  do  it ;  Fritz  will  do  it.'' 
This  was  now  about  to  come  true.  For  this  boy  grew 
up  to  become  the  leader  of  the  Calvinism  in  the  Palati- 
nate, which  his  grandfather  had  introduced,  and  his 
father  had  persecuted. 


CHAPTER  III.— SECTION  II. 

i 

The  Introduction  of  the  Reformed  Faith  into  the  Wetterau         ] 

District,  ! 

There  was  a  district  of  Germany  called  the  Wetterau 
Counties.  It  lay  around  Frankford,  east  of  the  Rhine, 
and  as  far  north  as  Cologne.  It  was  composed  of  a 
number  of  small  counties,  each  ruled  by  an  independent 
count.  These  Wetterau  lands  were  Sayn,  Wittgenstein, 
Nassau,  Wied,  Solms  and  Hanau.*  Being  so  near  to 
Hesse,  they  had  always  been  influenced  more  by  the 
mild  Hessian  type  of  Lutheran  ism  than  by  the  higher 
Lutheranism  of  Saxony.  They  were,  therefore,  the 
better  prepared  to  go  over  to  the  Reformed  faith.  The 
bigotry  of  the  high  Lutherans,  as  well  as  the  influence 
of  the  neighboring  Reformed  Palatinate,  led  them  to  go 
into  the  Reformed  Church. 

Wittgenstein. 

Of  these  counties,  the  first  one  to  be  aifected  by  the 
Reformed  doctrines,  was  the  most  northern  one,  Witt- 
genstein.    Its  prince  was  Count  Lewis  VI.     He  seems 


*See  map. 


254         THE   REFORMED   CHURCH   OF   GERMANY. 

to  have  been  at  Orleans  at  the  same  time  as  Count 
Herman  Lewis  of  the  Palatinate,  who  was  drowned  be- 
fore Olevianus'  eyes  at  Bourges.  He  there  began  his 
acquaintance  with  the  Palatinate  princes,  which  after- 
w^ard  resulted  in  his  becoming  an  official  in  that  court. 
He  studied  at  the  university  of  Padua  in  Italy,  with 
Count  Phillip  of  Nassau.  His  first  wife  was  a  daugh- 
ter of  the  Count  of  Solms.  His  daughter  married  Count 
John  of  Nassau.  We  thus  see  how  the  intermarriage 
of  these  princes  led  them,  one  after  the  other,  into  the 
Reformed  Church.  As  early  as  1564,  Count  Lewis  had 
heard  of  the  Heidelberg  Catechism,  and  was  influenced 
by  it  to  some  extent ;  for  he  wrote  to  Crell,  a  famous 
Hessian  minister,  about  its  ninety-seventh  answer, 
which  opposes  pictures  in  the  churches.  He  said  he 
could  see  no  harm  in  the  use  of  pictures  in  churches. 
This  correspondence  was  the  first  sign  that  he  was  in- 
quiring the  way  toward  the  Reformed  faith.  This  was 
greatly  strengthened  by  a  visit  that  he  paid  to  Switzer- 
land, in  company  with  his  brother-in-law  of  Solms. 
There  he  met  Bullinger,  who  exerted  a  great  influence 
on  him,  and  especially  influenced  him  toward  putting 
away  altars,  pictures,  &c.,  from  his  churches.  His  call 
to  Heidelberg,  to  a  court  position  in  the  Palatinate, 
completed  his  conversion.  He  became,  in  1574,  court- 
master  of  the  Palatinate;  and  here,  in  the  midst  of  Re- 
formed  influences,    he   became   thoroughly    Reformed. 


OLEVIANUS  IN  BERLEBERQ.  255 

Here  he  met  the  prominent  Reformed  theologians  of 
Germany,  and  in  fact  became  a  theologian  himself.  For 
he  was  not  only  a  prince,  but  a  rare  combination  of  a 
prince  and  theologian,  too.  Elector  Frederick  III.  very 
highly  honored  him,  and  sent  him  on  important  politi- 
cal and  religious  embassies.  After  the  death  of  Elector 
Frederick  III.,  and  the  accession  of  Elector  Lewis  to 
the  throne  of  the  Palatinate,  he  became  very  uncom- 
fortable at  Heidelberg.  When  Lewis  ordered  the  in- 
troduction of  the  Lutheran  faith  into  the  Palatinate,  he 
was  dismissed.  He  retired  to  his  county  seat,  Berleberg. 
He  was,  however,  very  deeply  attached  to  Olevianus, 
and  very  indignant  at  Olevianus'  arrest  by  Lewis.  He 
urged  Olevianus,  who  had  a  call  to  Dort,  to  come  to 
Berleberg  and  educate  his  sons.  He  showed  Olevianus, 
how  such  a  position  would  give  him  an  opportunity  to 
introduce  the  Reformed  faith  into  those  counties  east  of 
the  Rhine — that  although  the  Reformed  Church  was 
driven  out  of  the  Palatinate,  it  would  rise  up  again  in 
the  Wetterau  districts.  So,  although  the  salary  was 
small  and  the  position  low,  Olevianus  refused  the  call 
to  Dort  and  went  to  Berleberg.  Olevianus  at  once  com- 
pleted the  conversion  of  Wittgenstein  to  the  Reformed 
faith.  In  1578  the  custom  of  breaking  bread  at  com- 
munion was  introduced,  and  in  1582  the  altars  in  the 
churches  were  changed  into  communion  tables ;  and  the 
Heidelberg  Catechism  and  the  singing  of  psalms  intm- 


256         THE   REFORMED   CHURCH    OF   GERMANY. 

duced.  Private  confession  and  absolution,  Latin  sing- 
ing of  the  Scripture  lessons,  the  bowing  at  the  name  of 
Jesus,  the  feasts  of  the  saints,  pictures,  crosses,  cruci- 
fixes, all  were  put  away.*  The  great  aim  of  Count 
Lewis  was  to  form  a  General  Synod  of  all  the  Wetterau 
districts,  which  he  was  permitted  to  see  in  1586. 

Nassau. 

But  the  influence  of  Olevianus  was  not  confined 
merely  to  the  little  county  of  Wittgenstein.  These  coun- 
ties were  so  intimately  connected,  that,  what  affected 
one,  affected  all.  Nassau  was  the  next  land  to  receive 
the  Reformed  faith.  Its  ruler  at  that  time  was  Count 
John,  the  elder,  of  Dillenberg.  He  was  a  brother  of 
William,  Prince  of  Orange,  governor  of  the  Netherlands, 
known  in  history  as  William  the  Silent.  Prince  Wil- 
liam had  renounced  all  claim  to  his  estates  east  of  the 
Rhine,  so  that  Nassau  fell  to  Count  John.  Count  John 
was  a  pious  ruler, — had  been  educated  at  Wittenberg 
under  Melancthon  and  at  Strasburg  under  Sturm. 
Through  intercourse  with  his  brother  in  Holland,  he  had 
become  friendly  to  the  Reformed  faith.  As  early  as 
1572  he  received  Reformed  refugees  from  Holland  into 
his  laud  at  Siegen.  And  when  his  friend  and  neighbor. 
Count  Lewis  of  Wittgenstein,  became  Reformed,  he  at 
once  felt  the  influence  of  the  Reformed  faith.     It  was, 

•»Goebel,  I.,  389. 


NASSAU   BECOMES   REFORMED.  257 

however,  the  publication  of  the  Formula  of  Concord, 
with  its  narrow  Lutheranisra  and  its  denunciation  of  the 
Reformed,  that  led  him  into  the  Reformed  Church.  In 
his  opposition  to  the  Formula  of  Concord,  he  had  only 
followed  the  neighboring  Hessian  Church,  by  which  his 
land  had  always  been  influenced.  The  severe  persecu- 
tions of  the  Crypto  Calvinists  by  the  Lutherans  in  Sax- 
ony capped  the  climax,  and  so  disgusted  him  that  he 
went  over  to  the  Reformed  faith.  But  as  early  as  1568, 
he  had  called  a  Reformed  preacher,  Noviomagus,  to 
Herborn.  The  coming  of  Noviomagus  was  bitterly  op- 
posed by  his  Lutheran  superintendent,  Bernhart.  But, 
in  spite  of  the  opposition  of  the  superintendent,  Novi- 
omagus entered  on  his  duties  and  began  several  re- 
forms, as  the  putting  away  of  exorcism  at  baptism.  A 
peculiar  juncture  of  affairs  aided  the  introduction  of  the 
Reformed  faith.  It  happened  that  Pezel,  Widebram 
and  Cruciger,  driven  out  of  Wittenberg  for  being  Crypto- 
Calvinists,  came  to  Herborn  in  1577.  And  about 
the  same  time,  fifteen  Reformed  preachers,  driven  out 
of  the  Palatinate  by  the  persecution  of  Elector  Lewis, 
came  to  Nassau.  These  two  influences,  the  one  from 
the  east,  the  other  from  the  west,  came  together  just  at 
the  right  time  for  Nassau,  and  brought  it  over  to  the 
Reformed  faith.  Count  John  proceeded  cautiously  in 
his  reforms.  His  ministers  gradually  prepared  the  peo- 
ple for  the  change.     In  the  summer  of  1577   he  assem- 


258         THE   REFORMED   CHURCH    OF   GERMANY. 

bled  his  ministers  together,  and  they  celebrated  the 
Lord's  supper  with  broken  bread,  instead  of  wafers. 
This  act  committed  them  to  the  Reformed  faith.  The 
communion  cloth,  held  under  the  elements,  was  put 
away,  because  the  superstitious  people  did  not  believe 
they  received  the  body  and  blood  of  Christ,  if  such  a 
cloth  were  not  used.  Each  minister  promised  to  try  and 
introduce  these  reforms  into  his  congregation  as  soon  as 
possible.  In  1578  a  synod  was  held  at  Dillenberg,  on 
the  eighth  of  July,  which  fully  completed  the  introduc- 
tion of  the  Reformed  faith.  This  synod  consisted  of  22 
ministers,  court-master  Nymptsch  and  Otto  von  Grun- 
rade.  Pezel  was  the  leader  in  it  and  drew  up  a  form- 
ula, which  stated  the  differences  between  the  Reformed 
and  the  Lutherans.  It  defined  the  position  of  the  Re- 
formed Church,  and  ordered  that  all  Lutheran  customs 
be  abolished,  such  as  making  the  sign  of  the  cross  at 
baptism,  exotcism,  Latin  singing,  feast  days,  images, 
pictures,  organs,  candles,  priest's  gowns  and  altars.  All 
these  were  forbidden  (as  the  synod's  decrees  declare), 
"  since  the  Christians  in  the  New  Testament  have  nei- 
ther altar  nor  offering,  as  in  the  law  of  Moses.^'  The 
ministers  were  forbidden  to  turn  their  backs  to  the  con- 
gregation at  the  Lord's  supper,  like  the  Lutherans  and 
Catholics,  as  if  acting  as  the  intercessors  for  the  people. 
Confirmation,  which  had  been  made  a  sacrament  by  the 
Catholics,  was  dispensed  with.     Children  were  received 


NASSAU   BECOMES    REFORMED.  269 

into  the  Church  simply  by  the  laying  on  of  hands,  with- 
out the  blessing.  The  ministers  were  not  to  use  the 
Scripture  lessons.  Nor  were  they  compelled  to  take 
their  texts  from  the  gospel  or  epistle  for  the  day,  but 
texts  were  free.*  In  the  next  year,  1578,  October  2, 
another  synod  was  held  to  complete  the  work  of  the 
previous  synod.  The  synod  of  1581  ordered  the  intro- 
duction of  the  Heidelberg  Catechism  and  the  Palatinate 
church  order  into  the  churches  and  schools.  The  synod 
of  1582  completed  the  organization  of  the  Church,  and 
adopted  the  decrees  of  the  Dutch  synod  of  Middleburg 
of  1581,  which  introduced  the  full  presbyterial  church 
government  and  discipline,  and  also  ordered  the  use  of 
the  psalms  in  singing.  Count  John  rejoiced  greatly  at  the 
introduction  of  the  Reformed  faith  ;  and  next  to  Prince 
Casirair,  was  for  a  while  the  leading  Reformed  prince 
of  Germany.  Count  John  was  a  pious  man  and  deeply 
attached  to  the  Reformed  faith.  He  was  a  temperance 
man  and  opposed  the  drinking  customs  of  his  age,  es- 
pecially common  among  princes. 

Solms-Braunsels. 

The  Reformed  doctrines  did  not  stop  with  Nassau. 
Solms,  w^hich  was  a  county  composed  of  two  parts,  one 
called  Solms,  and  the  other  Braunsels,  situated  south- 
east or  in  the  southeastern  part  of  Nassau,  received  the 

-*Life  of  Count  John,  by  Cuno,  pages  18—20. 


260         THE    REFORMED    CHURCH    OF   GERMANY. 

Reformed  faith.  Through  intercourse  with  the  Prince 
of  Orange  and  Count  John  of  Nassau,  the  Count  of 
Solms  came  under  the  influence  of  the  Reformed  Church. 
It  was  Count  John  Albert  I.  of  Solms-Braunsels,  who 
fully  introduced  the  Reformed  faith  into  his  land.  He 
was  educated  at  Strasburg  under  the  Reformed  influ- 
ence of  Sturm.  Soon  after  his  accession  to  the  throne 
in  1582,  he  began  putting  away  altars  and  pictures  from 
his  Church  ;  introduced  Reformed  simplicity  of  worship 
and  the  breaking  of  bread  at  communion.  He  became, 
in  1600,  the  court-master  of  Elector  Frederick  IV.  of 
the  Palatinate,  which  position  he  held  for  twenty-one 
years.  He  became  a  very  prominent  statesman,  repre- 
senting the  Palatinate  in  many  important  negotiations. 
He  was  a  pious  man  and  deeply  attached  to  the  Re- 
formed faith. 

Wied. 

This  little  county  was  situated  along  the  east  bank 
of  the  Rhine,  nearly  opposite  Coblentz.  We  have  not 
time  to  rehearse  the  interesting  story  of  Elector  Herman 
of  Cologne,  prince  of  Wied,  who  from  being  fond  of 
the  chase,  became  fond  of  Christ ;  and  left  Catholicism 
for  Protestantism.  He  called  Bucer,  Melancthon  and 
Lasco,  to  help  him  evangelize  his  land.  We  note,  as  an 
interesting  fact,  that  while  the  cathedral  at  Strasburg 
at  one  time  was  Reformed,  so,  too,  an  attempt  was  made 
to  make  the  cathedral  at  Cologne  Reformed.      Protest- 


WIED    BECOMES    REFORMED.  261 

autism  became  so  strong  in  that  city,  that  Evangelical 
service  was  attempted  in  the  cathedral  at  Cologne.  But 
some  coppersmiths  came  up  out  of  the  town  and  made 
such  a  noise  that  the  preachers  had  to  stop.  The  cathe- 
dral chapter  at  Cologne  was  always  bitter  against  re- 
form. Elector  Herman,  through  lack  of  sympathy  from 
the  Protestant  princes,  was  deposed  from  his  position. 
He  retired  to  his  private  county  of  Wied,  and  spent  his 
later  years  in  introducing  the  reformation  into  it.* 

After  Count  Hermanns  death,  in  1542,  Count  John 
IV.  of  Wied  and  Runkel  succeeded  him.  His  minis- 
ters and  people  gradually  drifted  toward  the  Reformed 
faith.  At  a  synod  of  ministers  of  Wied,  Dierdor,  Run- 
kel and  Isenberg,  held  June,  1564,  at  Honnefeld,  a 
church  government  nearly  like  the  Reformed  was 
adopted,  which  appointed  elders  or  censors  in  each  con- 
gregation. It  also  ordered  the  introduction  of  the  Hei- 
delberg Catechism,  then  just  published   in  the  Palatin- 

*Had  Saxony  and  the  Sinalcald  league  upheld  him,  he  might 
have  retained  his  position.  Three  of  the  six  Electors  of  Ger- 
many were  already  Protestants,  and  the  fourth  of  the  Electors 
would  have  thus  been  added  to  the  Protestants'  side,  thus  giv- 
ing a  majority  in  the  Electoral  college,  and  securing  ultimately 
the  election  of  a  Protestant  Emperor,  or  of  a  Catholic  Emperor 
kindly  disposed  to  Protestantism.  Had  Herman  been  success- 
ful, other  Catholic  princes  would  have  followed  him  into  Prot- 
estantism, as  the  Elector  of  Treves  and  the  Bishop  of  Munster. 
Indeed,  it  has  been  suggested  that  the  Elector  of  Mayence,  then 
a  Humanist,  might  have  followed  his  example.  If  so,  all  the 
Electors  of  Germany  would  have  been  Protestant.  But  the  Ger- 
man princes,  blinded  by  jealousy  and  bigotry,  stood  in  their 
own  light  and  refused  to  support  him. 


262         THE   REFORMED   CHURCH    OF   GERMANY. 

ate.  In  1575  he  issued  a  church  order,  introducing  the 
full  presbyterial  church  government  in  the  land.  Count 
Herman  I.,  the  next  ruler,  was  a  very  zealous  Reformed 
prince.  He  completed  the  organization  of  the  Church 
by  forming  it,  in  1586,  into  a  general  synod  with  the 
Churches  of  Nassau  and  Wittgenstein. 

These  were  the  lands  in  which  Olevianus  was  called 
to  labor  for  the  introduction  of  the  Reformed  faith. 
Persecution  scatters  the  truth.  The  persecutions  of  the 
Palatinate,  instead  of  crushing  the  Reformed  faith  in 
Germany,  only  scattered  it  abroad  through  these  Wet- 
terau  lands.  The  most  important  event  for  the  Reformed 
Church  wa^  the  establishment  of  a  Reformed  high 
school  or  university  at  Herborn  by  Count  John  of  Dil- 
lenberg.  He  was,  as  we  have  already  seen,  a  remarka- 
ble man.  He  had,  before  this,  introduced  German 
schools,  instead  of  Latin  schools,  into  his  parishes.  He 
even  went  so  far  as  to  introduce  girls'  schools  into  the 
villages;  a  thing  then  unheard  of  in  the  rural  districts. 
He  now  turned  his  attention  to  a  higher  object,  namely 
the  founding  of  a  university,  that  should  supply  Re- 
formed preachers  for  the  churches.  At  first  he  was  un- 
decided where  to  locate  it ;  whether  at  Dillenberg,  Sieg- 
en  or  Herborn.  But  the  logic  of  circumstances  finally 
settled  that.  Pezel,  the  pastor  at  Herborn,  was  called 
to  Bremen,  to  aid  the  Melancthonians  of  that  city  to 
resist   the   attacks  of  the   Lutherans.      So  he  resigned, 


HERBORN    UNIVERSITY.  263 

and  Olevianus  was  called  as  his  successor  at  Herborn. 
The  coming  of  Olevianus  settled  the  location  of  the 
school.  It  was  located  at  Herborn,  that  Olevianus 
might  oversee  it.  Count  Lewis  of  Wittgenstein  was  at 
first  very  unwilling  to  give  up  Olevianus;  but  finally 
consented,  when  he  saw  the  advantages  to  be  gained 
thereby.  There  was  another  advantage  in  locating  the 
school  at  Herborn.  Count  John  had  a  castle  at  Her- 
born, which  he  gave  up  for  use  as  a  school.  Not  many 
princes  would  give  up  one  of  their  castles  to  make  a  col- 
lege. But  these  Nassau  princes  were  remarkable  school 
builders.  His  brother,  Prince  William  of  Orange, 
afterwards  founded  the  university  of  Leyden  in  Hol- 
land. And  Count  Lewis  of  Nassau  founded  the  uni- 
versity of  Franeker  in  Holland.  This  Herborn  uni- 
versity was  properly  called  the  Johanneum,  after  its 
founder,  who  sacrificed  so  much  to  establish  it.  Thus 
a  Reformed  university  arose,  to  take  the  place  of  the 
university  of  Heidelberg,  which  had  gone  over  to  Luth- 
eranism.  The  university  was  founded  on  July  10th, 
1584,  the  very  day  that  Count  John's  brother,  Prince 
William  of  Orange,  was  assassinated.  The  school  soon 
rose  to  great  prosperity.  Olevianus  and  his  successor, 
Piscator,  were  the  chief  ornaments  of  the  university. 
It  numbered  among  its  students,  young  princes  of  the 
houses  of  Wittgenstein,  Solms  and  Hanau.  It  flour- 
ished very  greatly  between    1606-10,  when  its  students 


264         THE    EEFORMED   CHURCH   OF   GERMANY. 

Dumbered  three  and  four  hundred,  and  came  from  all 
parts  of  Germany,  even  from  Poland  and  Hungary. 
The  golden  age  of  this  university  was  its  first  twenty 
years.  Its  sessions  were  held  in  the  count's  castle  until 
1588 ;  after  that  in  the  town,  over  the  city  hall  or  aula. 
But  the  school  declined  afterward,  mainly  because  it 
was  moved  from  place  to  place.  It  was  moved  to 
Siegen  in  1594,  because  Count  John  was  dissatisfied 
with  the  zeal  of  the  citizens  of  Herborn  in  its  interest. 
After  five  years,  it  was  moved  back  again  to  Herborn. 
Then  again,  in  1605  it  was  moved  to  Siegen,  on  account 
of  the  plague  at  Herborn,  and  returned  again  after  five 
years.  This  school  was  liberally  supported  by  the  Wet- 
terau  Counts,  and  became  a  centre  of  Reformed  influ- 
ence for  their  lands  and  for  Germany.  Olevianus' 
work  of  organizing  the  Churches  of  these  lands  was 
completed  in  1586,  when  a  General  Synod  of  Nassau, 
Wied,  Solms  and  Wittgenstein  was  held  at  Herborn,  on 
the  13th  of  June,  1586.  There  were  present  seventeen 
delegates  from  Nassau,  two  from  Wittgenstein,  five 
from  Solms,  two  from  Wied,  all  of  them  ministers.  It 
throughly  organized  the  Church  into  presbyteries,  clas- 
ses and  synods.  Its  president  was  Olevianus.  But 
Olevianus,  through  whose  administrative  ability  this 
victory  had  been  gained  for  the  Reformed  faith,  was 
not  permitted  to  enjoy  it  long.  He  died  at  Herborn, 
March  15,  1587,  of  dropsy.      His  death-bed  was  a  glo- 


DEATH    OF    OLEVIANUS.  265 

rious  testimony  to  the  joy  of  his  faith  in  Christ.    "  Yester- 
day/^ he  said,  *^  I  was  filled  for  more  than  an  hour  with 
inexpressible  joy.     It  seemed  to  me  as  if  I  walked  on  a 
splendid    mead,   and    while  I   went   round  il,  heavenly 
dew  fell   not  in  drops,  but   in  streams.      At  which  my 
body  and   soul    rejoiced    more   than    over   every  thing 
else."     Professor  Alsted  asked  him,  as  he  sank  into  the 
sleep  of  death :  "  My   brother,   are   you  without  doubt 
about  your  salvation  in  Christ  Jesus,  as  you  taught  to 
others?"  The   dying  Olevianus   laid   his   hand  on  his 
heart  and  said  :  "  Certissimus,"  (''  I  am  most  certain,") 
and  fell  asleep  in  Jesus.     He  was  buried  in  the  choir  of 
the  church  at   Herborn.      On  the  wall  of  the  choir  is  a 
metallic  tablet  that  describes  his   virtues.      He  was  a 
remarkable  man,  of  great   eloquence,    fervid    piety  and 
fine  executive  ability,   a  rare  combination  of  qualities. 
The  sum  of  his  faith  is  found  in  the  first  answer  of  the 
Heidelberg  Catechism,  his  full   belief,  in  his  remarka- 
ble work   on  the  Covenant  of  Grace.      In  this  work  he 
reveals  himself  as  the  forerunner  of  the  Cocceian  theol- 
ogy of  the   covenants,    which    spread    through   the  Re- 
formed Church  in  the  next  generation.       After    Olevi- 
anus' death,  his  son-in-law   Piscator    became   the  great 
leader  of  the  school  at  Herborn.     His  great  work  was  a 
translation  of  the  Bible,  the  first  edition   of  which  ap- 
peared in  1602-3.       It  was   circulated   in   Nassau,  but 
nowhere  else,  except  in  the  Canton  of  Berne,    (where  it 

18 


266         THE   REFORMED   CHURCH    OF   GERMANY. 

is  still  in  use,)  and  in  Isenberg.  His  aim  was  to  make 
Herborn  a  purely  Reformed  university.  His  orthodoxy 
was,  however,  once  questioned  by  some  of  the  French 
Reformed  churches,  because  he  held  the  insufficiency  of 
the  active  obedience  of  Christ.  But  he  was  supported 
in  this  by  leading  German  theologians  of  his  day,  as 
Parens,  Scultetus  and  Cappel.     Piscator  died  in  1625. 

Hanau, 

While  these  events  were  taking  place  at  Herborn, 
the  Reformed  faith  was  introduced  into  several  other  of 
these  Wetterau  lands.  It  spread  into  the  counties  to  the 
south-east.  Hanau,  situated  east  of  Frankford,  received 
it.  Count  Phillip  Lewis  I.  of  Hanau-Munzenberg  was, 
with  the  other  German  princes,  asked  to  sign  the  For- 
mula of  Concord.  But,  by  his  travels  in  France,  he 
had  learned  the  Reformed  doctrines,  and  at  Paris  became 
so  attached  to  Coligny,  that  he  himself  was  in  danger 
on  the  night  of  St.  Bartholomew's  massacre.  Being 
thus  inclined  to  the  Reformed  Church,  he,  with  the 
other  Wetterau  counts,  refused  to  sign  the  Formula  of 
Concord.  He  began  to  simplify  his  Church  of  altars 
and  pictures,  and  aimed  more  and  more  to  introduce 
Reformed  customs,  until  he  died  in  1580.  His  son. 
Count  Phillip  Lewis  II.,  a  minor,  had  two  Reformed 
guardians  and  one  Lutheran.  The  Reformed  guardians. 
Count  John  of  Dillenberg  and  Count  Lewis  of  Wittgen- 


INTHODUCTION    INTO    HANAU.  267 

Stein,  placed  him  at  Herborn,  where  he  was  educated 
under  Reformed  influences.  The  Lutheran  guardian, 
Count  Phillip  of  Hanau-Lichtenberg,  tried,  by  the  ap- 
pointment of  a  Lutheran  superintendent,  to  introduce 
the  Formula  of  Concord  into  Hanau.  The  ministers 
and  people  rebelled  against  this,  and  after  the  superin- 
tendent's departure,  Goebel  and  Fabricius,  on  Christmas, 
1593,  introduced  bread  at  the  Lord's  supper  instead  of 
wafers,  which  signified  that  the  Church  had  now  become 
Reformed.  The  Count  of  Hanau-Lichtenberg  threatened 
to  put  out  the  Reformed  by  force.  But  Elector  Frederick 
III.  of  the  Palatinate  came  to  the  rescue  of  the  Re- 
formed and  warned  him  against  severe  measures.  When 
Count  Phillip  II.  became  of  age  and  assumed  the  rule 
of  his  land,  he  found  it  ready  to  receive  the  Reformed 
faith.  All  pictures,  altars  and  fonts  were  put  out  of  the 
churches  and  Reformed  customs  introduced.*  With 
the  help  of  Scultetus,  the  Reformed  oracle  of  his  time, 
the  Palatinate  church  order  was  introduced.  The  Re- 
formed Church  in  this  land  was  strengthened  in  1597 
by  the  coming  of  the  Dutch  and  French  Reformed  refu- 
gees from  neighboring  Frankford,  who  were  driven  out 
by  the  Lutherans.  These  brought  prosperity  to  his 
land,  as  they  were  industrious  artisans  in  silver,  gold, 
silk  and  wool.  His  wife.  Princess  Catharine  Belgica, 
the  daughter  of  the   Prince  of  Orange,  was  one  of  the 

*Heppe's  Geschichte,  Beider  Hessen,  II.,  237. 


268         THE    REFORMED    CHURCH    OF    GERMANY. 

most  renowned   Reformed  princesses   of  her  age.     She 

took  these  Reformed  refugees  under  her  special  care  and 

protection.     They  built  a  part  of  the  town  called  New 

Hanau,  and  also  built  a  church,  named,  after  Maria  of 

Cassel,  the 'Maria'  church.     A   Reformed  gymnasium 

was  founded   at  Hanau   in  1607.     The   Reformed,  who 

remained  in  Frankford,  were  finally  allowed  to  build  a 

church  just  outside  of  the  walls  of  Frankford   in  1601. 

This  church,  although  at  first  not  allowed  any  separate 

organization   from   the  Frankford    Lutheran  churches, 

finally  came  into  connection  with  the  Hanau  Reformed 

Synod. 

Is&nberg. 

Isenberg  is  a  little  county  just  north  of  Hanau  and 
north-east  of  Frankford  The  Formula  of  Concord 
drove  the  Count  of  Isenberg  over  to  the  Reformed 
faith.  Count  Wolfgang  of  Isenberg  was  influenced  very 
much  by  Count  John  of  Dillenberg,  and  also  by  the 
neighboring  Count  of  Hanau.  On  Easter,  1584,  he 
first  received  the  Lord's  supper  after  the  Reformed 
mode  at  Kelsterbach,  his  castle  on  the  banks  of  the 
Main.  In  spite  of  opposition  from  his  family  and  from 
some  Lutheran  preachers,  who  declared  the  Turks  were 
better  than  the  Calvinists,  he,  with  the  aid  of  Herborn 
ministers,  kept  on  introducing  Reformed  customs.  No 
sooner  was  he  dead,  than  his  brother  Henry,  who  was  a 
Lutheran,  sent  all  the  Reformed  preachers  away  from 


ISENBERG    AND   SAYN.  269 

Isenberg  Ronneberg.  But  Count  Wolfgang  Ernst  I., 
son  of  Count  of  Birstein,  re-introduced  the  Reformed 
faith  into  Isenberg.  On  the  first  of  August,  1597,  he 
gathered  the  nainisters  together  at  his  castle  at  Birstein 
and  urged  them  to  introduce  the  Reformed  simplicity  of 
worship.  He  sent  deputies  through  his  land,  who 
gathered  the  people  together  in  the  church  yards,  made 
known  to  them  the  desire  of  their  Count,  and  advised 
them  to  go  into  the  church  and  hear  the  sermon.  They 
went  into  the  church,  and  heard  that  altars  and  pictures 
were  contrary  to  the  Word  of  God.  The  congregations 
generally  assented  to  these  changes,  and  the  Reformed 
faith  was  introduced  into  Isenberg  Ronneberg,  with  the 
exception  of  Ruckingen,  which  remained  Lutheran. 

Sayn, 

Count  William  of  Sayn  introduced  the  Reformed 
faith  into  his  county  of  Sayn,  situated  east  of  the  Rhine 
and  north  of  Wied.  He  had  Olevianus  as  his  tutor  at 
Berleberg,  and  he  afterwards  studied  at  Marburg  and 
Herborn.  In  1605  he  assumed  the  rule  over  Sayn, 
which  before  had  been  Lutheran.  He  was  assisted  by 
the  Herborn  theologians  in  introducing  the  Reformed 
customs.  He  had  not  much  difficulty  in  doing  so,  as 
two  of  the  Lutheran  pastors  had  just  gone  over  to  Rome  ; 
and  this  opened  the  eyes  of  the  people  to  the  dangers 
still  lurking  in  high  Lutheranisni  and  its  rites.     Still 


270         THE    REFORMED    CHURCH    OF    GERMANY. 

he  had  a  great  deal  of  opposition  from  the  Elector  of 
Treves,  a  powerful  neighboring  prince.  Finally,  in 
1599,  when  the  Reformed  were  in  danger  of  persecution 
from  the  Lutherans,  because  of  the  damnatory  clause  of 
the  Formula  of  Concord,  Count  John  of  Nassau  gath- 
ered the  Counts  of  Hanau,  Solms,  Wied  and  Wittgen- 
stein into  a  confederation,  to  arrange  for  defense. 

Thus  did  the  Reformed  faith  conquer  the  Wetterau 
districts.  Driven  from  the  Palatinate,  it  found  a  home 
in  this  region.  Herborn  began  to  rival  Heidelberg. 
When  the  Reformed  faith  was  re-introduced  into  the 
Palatinate,  these  lands  sustained,  and  were  sustained  by, 
the  Palatinate.  And  the  conquering  march  of  the  Re- 
formed faith  through  Germany  began.  Nor  did  it  end, 
until  the  Elector  of  Brandenburg  ultimately  became 
Reformed  in  his  capital  of  Berlin. 


CHAPTER  III.— SECTION  HI. 

Introduction  of  the  Reformed  Faith  into  Bremen- 

Bremen  was  one  of  the  free  cities  of  North  Germany, 
a  large  and  influential  town.  Its  conversion  to  the  Re- 
formed faith  gave  the  Reformed  Church  a  new  centre  of 
influence,  and  aided  Emden,  which  had  formerly  stood 
alone  on  the  northern  coast,  in  its  witness  for  Reformed 
truth.  The  city  of  Bremen  was  early  converted  to  Prot- 
estantism by  Henry  of  Zutphen  in  1522.  The  immedi- 
ate cause  of  the  introduction  of  the  Reformed  faith  into 
Bremen  was  Hardenberg,  who  came  to  Bremen  in  1547. 
He  had  been  the  friend  of  Lasco,  and  had  been  named 
by  Lasco  as  the  superintendent  of  East  Friesland.  But 
in  the  battle  of  Drakenborg,  1547,  in  which  Duke  Eric 
of  Brunswick  was  defeated  and  Bremen  freed,  Harden- 
berg took  part ;  and,  although  wounded,  also  took  part 
in  the  entrance  of  the  conquering  army  into  Bremen. 
All  the  churches  in  Bremen  had  been  Lutheran,  except 
the  cathedral,  which  had  been  closed  since  the  Catholics 
left  in  1532.  Hardenberg  was  called  as  preacher  in  the 
cathedral.  He  was  not  to  administer  the  sacraments, 
and  he  had  no  other  duty  as  pastor,  except  to   preach 


272         THE   REFORMED   CHURCH    OF   GERMANY. 

and  hold  a  weekly  Latin  theological  lecture.  He  was 
under  the  control  of  the  cathedral  chapter,  and  not  under 
the  city  council,  who  controlled  the  rest  of  the  ministers. 
The  people  of  Bremen  crowded  to  hear  him  preach,  be- 
cause he  preached  "  with  such  clearness  and  earnestness, 
which  led  them  to  piety  and  morality."  Whether 
Probst  or  Timan,  the  two  leaders  of  the  Lutherans  in 
Bremen,  knew,  when  they  called  him  to  Bremen,  that 
Hardenberg  was  low  in  his  Lutheranism,  we  do  not 
know.  But  peace  and  harmony  did  not  reign  long. 
Already  in  1547  his  peculiar  views  on  the  sacrament 
caused  talk  among  the  Lutherans.  But  in  1548  he  pub- 
lished a  confession,  which  was  almost  the  same  in  phra- 
seology as  the  Tigurine  confession  of  the  Swiss,  issued 
the  following  year.  The  Lutheran  preachers  of  Bremen 
were,  however,  satisfied  with  it.  They  had  not  as  yet 
had  their  attention  called  to  the  heresies  of  Calvinism, 
and  were  somewhat  careless  about  strict  Lutheranism. 
(Probst,  Luther^s  friend,  had  allowed  Lasco  to  stay  at 
Bremen  for  half  a  year  in  1549  without  any  opposition  ; 
and  also  permitted  him  to  take  part  in  the  Lord's  supper 
at  the  Maria  church.)  This  confession  of  Harden  berg's 
was  approved  by  Melancthon,  whose  opinion  still  carried 
full  authority.  But  gradually  there  came  about  an  alien- 
aiii'n  between  Hardenberg  and  the  rest  of  the  Lutheran 
pn-achers.  His  intercourse  with  Lasco  in  1549  and 
1550  had  affected  him.      When  Lasco  came   back  from 


HARDENBERG    IN    BREMEN.  273 

England,  the  Lutheran  preachers  had  been  stirred  up  by 
Westphal  of  Hamburg  against  the  Calvinists.  And 
even  Hardenberg  is  said  to  have  become  somewhat  cool 
toward  Lasco,  for  his  extreme  Calvinistic  views.  The 
publication  of  Lasco's  catechism  in  neighboring  Em- 
den  opened  the  eyes  of  Timan,  to  see  that  the  dangers  of 
Calvinism  were  around.  He  at  once  published  his  'far- 
rago/ in  which  he  advocated  the  doctrine  of  ubiquity, 
and  urged  that  all  the  ministers  of  Bremen  be  urged  to 
subscribe  to  it.  Hardenberg  and  two  others  refused  to 
sign  the  farrago.  Hardenberg  said  the  difference  be- 
tween himself  and  the  others  was  not  in  the  doctrine  of 
the  Lord's  supper,  but  in  the  doctrine  of  ubiquity. 
Timan  then  began  to  preach  against  Hardenberg  as  a 
Zwinglian.  The  magistrates  sided  with  the  Lutheran 
preachers.  When  they  wanted  to  censure  Hardenberg, 
he  declined  to  be  amenable  to  them ;  for  he  said  he 
was  under  the  control  of  the  cathedral  chapter.  So  a 
delegation  was,  in  1557,  sent  to  Wittenberg  for  Melanc- 
thon's  opinion  about  the  matter.  The  embassy  returned 
with  the  advice  that  in  the  disputation  about  the  Lord's 
supper,  irrelevant  contentions  should  be  avoided.  The 
advice  was  friendly  to  Hardenberg,  for  the  Wittenberg 
divines  opposed  the  doctrine  of  ubiquity  as  much  as 
Hardenberg  did.  This  advice,  however,  failed  to  sat- 
isfy the  high  Lutherans.  The  ministers  of  Bremen  then 
desired  Hardenberg's  dismissal.     But  Hardenberg  had 


274         THE   REFORMED   CHURCH    OF   GERMANY. 

prominent  friends  in  the  city  cpuncil,  as  Burgomaster 
Daniel  Van  Buren,  who  opposed  his  dismissal.  But  out- 
side influences  were  brought  to  bear  against  Hardenberg. 
The  King  of  Denmark  wrote  to  the  city  council  that 
they  must  dismiss  him ;  and  so  did  the  magistrates  of 
Hamburg  and  Lubeck.  In  the  meantime  Timan  died, 
and  Probst  became  too  old  to  conduct  the  controversy 
against  Hardenberg.  So  Hesshuss  was  called  in  to  de- 
fend the  high  Lutherans.  He  came  fresh  from  Heidel- 
berg, smarting  under  his  defeat  there.  He  arranged  for 
a  disputation  between  Hardenberg  and  himself.  But 
Hardenberg  did  not  appear,  as  his  cathedral  chapter  for- 
bade him ;  for  he  was  afraid  for  his  life.  So,  as  he  did 
not  appear,  the  citizens  were  summoned  to  appear  before 
the  council,  and  answer  whether  they  were  on  Hardeu- 
berg's  side  or  not.  Whoever  attended  his  preaching  in 
the  cathedral,  was  excommunicated  in  the  city  churches  ; 
and  the  officials,  who  declared  for  him,  were  dismissed 
from  their  posts.  So  the  Bremen  zealots  and  the  Cath- 
olic archbishop  (who  still  claimed  jurisdiction  over  the 
city)  brought  the  matter  before  the  neighboring  Saxon 
circles  of  Brunswick-Luneberg  and  Celle,  at  a  Diet  at 
Brunswick,  1561.  Hardenberg  appeared  there  almost 
alone,  accompanied  only  by  his  faithful  Van  Buren  and 
a  canon  of  the  cathedral.  Against  him  appeared  a  num- 
ber of  high  Lutherans,  as  Hesshuss,  Mori  in  and  Chem- 
nitz.    The  decision  of  this  Diet  was,  that   Hardenberg 


275 


was  forbiddeu  to  preach  in  the  cathedral,  and  was  or- 
dered to  leave  the  city  within  fourteen  days.  Hardeu- 
berg  returned  to  Bremen,  entered  a  protest  against  the 
decision,  and  on  the  18th  of  February,  1561,  left  Bre- 
men amid  the  tears  of  the  people. 

But  his  dej^arture  did  not  bring  peace  to  Berlin. 
The  defeat  of  Melancthonianism  in  Bremen  did  not  de- 
stroy it.  Hardenberg  left  behind  him  influential  friends, 
chief  among  whom  being  Van  Buren.  Musaus  came  to 
Bremen  as  superintendent,  in  place  of  Hesshuss.  In  his 
first  sermon  he  declared  that  he  would  not  rest  until  the 
poor  city,  which  had  been  turned  by  the  Zwinglians  into 
"a  Sodom  and  Gomorrah/' should  be  purified.  Musaus 
endeavored  to  introduce  a  new  high  Lutheran  church  or- 
der, which  gave  great  offense,  and  made  many  of  the  cit- 
izens enemies  to  his  cause.  And  as  an  attempt  was  made 
in  1562  to  defeat  Van  Buren  for  re-election  as  president 
of  the  city  council.  Van  Buren  went  to  the  city  hall  at- 
tended by  four  thousand  citizens.  The  result  was  that 
Musaus  and  twelve  other  zealous  high  Lutheran  preach- 
ers, were  compelled  to  leave  the  city,  and  the  Lutheran 
councillors  resigned  from  the  council.  Van  Buren  now 
had  the  power,  and  he  filled  the  places  of  these  minis- 
ters with  Melancthonian  preachers.  This  raised  a  great 
storm  throughout  North  Germany.  Bremen  was  called 
a  new  Sodom.  Hamburg,  Lubeck  and  Dantzic  laid  an 
embargo  on  all  Bremish  ships.  Bremen  was  cast  out  of 
the  Hanseatic  League.     Many  of  the  Saxon  and  West- 


276         THE    REFORMED   CHURCH    OF    GERMANY. 

phalian  states  shut  their  borders  against  Bremen  citizens. 
This  quarantine  against  Bremen  brought  suffering  on  the 
city,  but  still  she  declared  she  would  be  true  to  the  orig- 
inal faith  and  reject  ubiquity.  Finally,  in  1568,  the 
controversy,  after  an  appeal  to  the  imperial  court,  was 
settled  by  the  adoption  of  the  Melancthonian  creeds. 
Those  Lutherans,  who  had  been  driven  out  of  the  city, 
were  allowed  to  return.  In  1572  a  high  Lutheran 
preacher  again  appeared  at  St.  Ansgari  church,  but  Bre- 
men remained  true  to  Melancthon.  The  Formula  of 
Concord  capped  the  climax.  Opposed  to  ubiquity,  the 
citizens  opposed  this.  An  attempt  was  made  to  intro- 
duce it  into  Bremen.  A  copy  of  it  was  sent  in  1577  to 
Glaneus,  the  pastor  of  St.  Ansgari  church,  that  he  might 
introduce  it.  He  presented  it  to  the  council  of  the  city. 
But  superintendent  Mening  opposed  the  book.  The 
ministers  and  city  council  refused  to  subscribe  to  it,  or 
to  make  subscription  to  it  obligatory  on  the  ministers  of 
Bremen.  Glaneus  then  began  to  preach  against  those 
who  opposed  the  Formula  of  Concord.  He  was  ordered 
to  stop.  But  his  friends,  Rocholl  and  Naso  of  St.  Mar- 
tin's church,  upheld  him.  The  city  council,  therefore, 
to  answer  these  polemics,  called  Pezel  and  Widebram 
from  Herborn.  Pezel  came  in  1580.  A  disputation 
was  held,  which  only  resulted  in  more  quarreling  after 
the  disputation.  Glaneus  strove  to  get  the  Catholic 
archbishop,  the  former  administrator  of  Bremen,  to  in- 
terfere in   his  favor,   as  he  had  done   for  Hardenberg 


VICTORY   OF   THE    REFORMED.  277 

twenty  years  before.  But  the  citizens  of  Bremen  arose 
against  such  unwarranted  interference  from  the  arch- 
bishop. And,  as  Glaneus  continued  to  make  trouble, 
he  \vas  dismissed.  In  1582  Pezel  became  pastor  of  St. 
Ansgari  church  in  Glaneus'  place,  and  after  superinten- 
dent Meninges  death  in  1584,  he  became  superintendent. 
He  became  the  first  professor  of  theology  in  the  new  gym- 
nasium, that  had  been  founded  there.  Thus,  driven 
out  by  the  high  Lutherans,  Bremen  went  over  to  the 
Reformed  faith.  Pezel  introduced  breaking  of  bread 
at  the  Lord's  supper,  which  made  the  Church  Reformed. 
He  also  put  away  exorcism,  and  images  and  pictures. 
In  1595  he  drew  up  the  Bremen  Confession,  which  is 
strongly  Reformed.  In  it  he  adopts  the  Calvinistic  doc- 
trine of  predestination,  sharply  distinguishing  between 
predestination  and  reprobation.  This  Bremen  Confes- 
sion was  signed  by  all  the  Bremen  ministers  down  to 
1780.  The  Heidelberg  Catechism  was  also  introduced, 
although  the  Bremen  Catechism  remained  in  use  till  in 
the  last  century. 

Thus  Bremen  became  Reformed.  By  a  strange  co- 
incidence, the  old  cathedral,  in  which  Hardenberg  had 
opposed  the  Lutherans  and  first  prepared  the  way  for 
the  Reformed  faith,  finally  became  the  only  Lutheran 
church  of  tho  city.  It  was  opened  in  1638  for  the  Lu- 
therans. And  while  the  other  churches  of  the  city  re- 
mained Reformed,  this  became  the  leading  Lutheran 
church  of  the  city. 


CHAPTER  III.— SECTION  IV. 

Introduction  of  the  Reformed  Faith  Along  the  Lower 
Rhine. 

There  were  two  general  synods  of  the  Reformed 
Church  fornaed  in  the  lower  Rhine  districts,  the  large 
synod  of  Julich-Cleve-Berg  and  Mark  around  Cologne, 
and  also  a  smaller  synod,  taking  in  the  counties  of 
Bentheim  and  Tecklenberg  farther  north.*  These  synods 
felt  the  influence  of  neighboring  Holland,  and  the  for- 
mer especially  revealed  unusual  piety  and  pure  presby- 
teriauism. 

The  Synod  of  Julieh-  Cleve-Berg  and  Mark. 

The  movement  that  led  to  the  formation  of  this 
synod,  began  as  early  as  1545.  It  is  noticeable  that  this 
synod  began  with  Holland  refugees  ;  but  finally  changed 
into  a  German  synod.  At  first  it  was  a  foreign  Church, 
but  gradually  changed  into  a  native  German  Church. 
In  1545  a  number  of  Holland  refugees,  fleeing  from 
their  land,  found  a  refuge  at  Wesel  in  northwestern 
Germany.  The  city  council  of  Wesel  would  not  receive 
them  at  first,  as  the  rites  of  their  Church  were  different 
*See  map. 


THE    REFUGEES   AT   WESEL.  279 

from  the  Lutheran  customs  of  Wesel.  But  they  were 
finally  permitted  to  remain,  after  signing  a  Melanctho- 
nian  creed.  They  were  allowed  to  have  worship  in 
their  own  languasfe  and  after  their  own  fashion,  but 
were  not  permitted  to  baptize  or  commune,  except  in 
one  of  the  Lutheran  congregations  of  the  city.  The 
introduction  of  the  Interim,  which  Wesel  very  bitterly 
resisted,  caused  many  of  the  Lutherans  to  worship  with 
the  Reformed  in  private  houses  ;  and  there  they  learned 
to  love  the  simple  and  Scriptural  worship  of  the  Re- 
formed Church.  The  persecutions  of  the  Interim,  too, 
opened  their  eyes  to  the  Romish  dangers  that  were  lurk- 
ing in  some  of  the  Lutheran  rites  of  that  day.  The 
influence  of  the  Reformed  faith  was  strengthened  by 
another  arrival  of  refugees  at  Wesel  in  1554,  when 
Lasco's  congregation  arrived  from  London.  There 
were  then  four  foreign  congregations  at  Wesel,  an  Eng- 
lish, French,  Walloon  or  French,  and  low  Dutch.  Al- 
though these  refugees  were  Calvinists,  Wesel  still  re- 
ceived them,  because  of  the  temporal  benefits  to  be  de- 
rived from  them  ;  for  they  were  merchants  and  manu- 
facturers of  cloth,  lace  and  yarn.  The  refugees  brought 
prosperity  wherever  the  settled,  and  even  Catholic  cities 
like  Aix-la-Chapelle  and  Cologne  were  willing  to  receive 
them,  and  grant  them  religious  privileges,  because  of 
the  temporal  benefits  derived  from  them.  Through  the 
coming  of  these  refugees,    Wesel    became  so  prosperous 


280         THE    REFORMED   CHURCH    OF   GERMANY. 

that  it  was  called  "  little  Antwerp."*     After  these  Eng- 
lish refugees    had   arrived,  a  circumstance   occurred,  in 
which  the   refugees    insisted  on  their    right   to   use  Re- 
formed rites.     One  of  the  English   ministers,    curate  to 
the  Duchess  of  Suffolk,    wanted  to   baptize    her   child. 
The  refugees  had  not  been  permitted  to   baptize,  as  all 
the   baptisms  had  to   be  performed  in    one  of  the  city 
Lutheran  churches,  by  the  Lutheran  clergy.     The  refu- 
gees then  made   complaint  to  the  city    authorities   that 
they  were  compelled  to  partake  of  the  Lord's  supper  in 
the  city  churches,  where  the  service  was  strange  and  in 
a  strange  language,  and  the  semi-papal   customs  at  the 
altar,  such  as  altars,  choir-robes  and  lights,  were  offens- 
ive to  them.      These  refugees,  especially  the  Walloons, 
who  were  a   hot-blooded    race,    were    very    determined. 
They  had  been  driven  out  of  their  land  by  persecution ; 
and   they   were    willing  to    bear   another   persecution, 
rather   than   give  up  any  right  of  conscience.       As  an 
illustration  of  the  devotion  of  these  Walloons  at  Wesel, 
Bertrand  de  Bias  from  Tournay  went  back  twice  to  his 
home  that  he  might  convert  his   family  to  Protestant- 
ism.    In  1555  he  went  again.     On  Christmas,  he  asked 
his  wife   and    brothers  to   pray   for  the   success  of  his 
efforts.     Then  during   mass    he   went   up  to  the  priest, 
took  the  consecrated  wafer  from  his  hand,  trod  it  under 

*The  Catholics  bad  a  couplet  that  ran  thus  : 

Geneva,  Wesel  and  Rochelle 
Are  the  Devil's  second  hell. 


THE    REFUGEES    AT    WESEL.  281 

foot  and  said  :  "  This  I  do  for  the  glory  of  God,  and  to 
show  the  impotence  of  this  wafer."  Imprisoned  for 
this,  he  remained  unshaken,  and  confessed  that  all  his 
knowledge  of  the  truth  he  owed  to  the  preaching  he  had 
heard  at  Wesel.  He  bravely  suffered  death.  His  hand 
and  feet  were  torn  off  with  hot  pincers,  his  tongue  cut 
out,  and  while  still  alive,  he  was  hung  over  a  slow  fire 
and  burned  to  ashes.  Men  of  such  perseverance  and 
bravery  were  not  to  be  refused,  when  they  asked  for  per- 
mission to  worship  according  to  the  Reformed  rites. 
They  had  suffered,  or  were  willing  to  suffer,  too  much 
for  their  Reformed  faith  to  give  it  up.  But  the  city 
authorities  would  not  yield  to  their  request.  They 
threatened  to  drive  out  the  refugees  for  finding  fault  with 
the  Lutherans  of  Wesel.  Melancthon  was  appealed  to 
for  advice.  He  counselled  the  authorities  of  Wesel  to 
use  mildness,  and  allow  these  refugees  to  have  their 
own  worship  and  observe  their  own  sacraments,  as 
they  had  been  allowed  to  do  in  Frankford  and  Stras- 
burg.  But  Melancthon's  advice  did  not  bring  peace. 
The  refugees  placed  themselves  under  his  protection  ; 
but  the  high  Lutherans  were  still  opposed  to  them. 
Even  the  German  ministers  of  Wesel  were  not  united 
among  themselves.  Bommel  sympathized  with  Me- 
lancthon and  the  refugees.  The  other  ministers  stirred 
up  the  people  against  them,  so  that  the  refugees  were 
attacked  and  beaten  with  fists.  Bommel  soon  after  left 
19 


282         THE   REFORMED   CHURCH   OF   GERMANY. 

the  city,   because   the   Duke  of  Cleve  ordered   the  re- 
introduction  of  Catholic  customs.      But  in  the  place  of 
Bommel,  came  two    ministers — Heidfeld  from  Treves, 
and  Orzenius.      They    were   followers  of  Melancthon, 
but  afterwards  went  over  to  the   Reformed   faith.      So 
the  strife   between    the   Lutherans   themselves    became 
greater.     Heidfeld  and  Orzenins  were  Melancthonians, 
while   Plateanus,    of  the  church  of  St.    Antonius,  was 
high  Lutheran.      The    latter  aimed  to   introduce   high 
Lutheran    customs,  as  exorcism,   which   heretofore  had 
been  unknown  as  a  Protestant  rite  to  the  people  along 
the  Rhine.      The  Melancthonian    party  opposed  these 
innovations,  and  were  strengthened   by  the  coming  of 
another  minister,    Rollins,    formerly   court-preacher  of 
the  Duke  of  Julich.     Rollins  was  now  tending  toward 
the  Reformed  doctrines.     So  there  were  three  city  min- 
isters against  Plateanus.     Plateanus  called  in  Hesshuss, 
to  assist  him  in  introducing  high  Lutheranism.     Hess- 
huss came  from  Heidelberg,  to  warn  the  people  against 
the  poison  of  Reformed   doctrine,    which    was  entering 
Germany,  and  was  now   spreading   from    the   refugees' 
churches  of  Wesel  into  its  city  churches.      But  Hess- 
huss' efforts  had  the  same  effect  here  as  at  Heidelberg. 
They  led  to   the  introduction  of  the  Reformed  faith 
here  as  there.     For  Rollius  gained  the  burgomaster  of 
the  city,  Von  Grove,  to  his  side.      Plateanus   was  dis- 
missed and  the  high  Lutherans  driven  out.     When  the 


THE   SYNOD   OF   WESEL.  283 

Heidelberg  Catechism  appeared,  in  1563,  sanctioned  by 
so  powerful  a  prince  as  Elector  Frederick  III.  of  the 
Palatinate,  Wesel  was  ripe  for  its  reception.  It  was 
adopted  in  1564  by  the  Wesel  city  churches,  who,  by 
this  act,  became  Reformed.  Wesel  was  the  first  place 
outside  of  the  Palatinate,  where  the  Heidelberg  Cate- 
chism was  officially  adopted  by  any  church.  The  Re- 
formed churches  of  Wesel  were  greatly  strengthened  by 
the  large  influx  of  refugees  from  Holland  in  1567,  driven 
out  by  the  cruelties  of  the  Duke  of  Alva.  They  came  not 
by  hundreds,  but  by  thousands,  and  made  this  Church 
of  Wesel  the  leading  refugee  Church  along  the  lower 
Rhine ;  as  Heidelberg  was  along  the  upper  Rhine. 
Other  smaller  colonies  were  formed.  Reformed  churches 
were  scattered  all  over  different  parts  of  northwestern 
Germany.  They  called  themselves  ^  churches  under  the 
cross,'  or  secret  Reformed  churches,  because  they  were 
persecuted  refugees  and  often  existed  in  places,  where 
they  were  so  persecuted,  that  their  religious  services 
were  held  in  houses  and  kept  secret. 

In  1568  a  synod,  or  rather  a  conference,  of  these 
refugee  churches  was  held  at  Wesel.  This  was  the 
first  official  meeting  of  the  Reformed  churches  of  the 
lower  Rhine.  It  was  a  Dutch  synod  meeting  on  German 
ground,  no  German  churches  having  been  admitted  to  it. 
Twenty  of  these  *  churches  of  the  cross'  were  represented 
in  this  synod.     Forty-six  ministers  and  elders  attended 


284         THE    REFORMED   CHURCH    OF   GERMANY. 

it,  while  seven  absentees  agreed  to  its  decisions.     The 
president  of  this  synod  was  Dathenus,  the  court  preacher 
of  Elector  Frederick  III.  of  the  Palatinate.     The  synod 
evidently  aimed   to   place  itself  as  far  as  possible  un- 
der the  protection  of  such  a  powerful  German  prince  as 
Frederick.    This  Wesel  synod  was  a  very  important  one, 
as  it  secured  the  union  of  the  Zwiugliau  followers  of  Las- 
co  with  the   Walloon  or  French  adherents  of  Calvin. 
What  the  confession  of  Tigurinus  was  to  the  southern 
churches,  by  uniting  the  Zwinglians  and  Calvinists  of 
Switzerland ;  the  decrees  of  this  Wesel  synod  were  to  the 
northern  churches  of  Germany,  in  uniting  them.     This 
Wesel  synod  held  strongly  to  all  the  essentials  of  the  Re- 
formed faith,  especially  as  they  were  laid  down  in  the 
word  of  God.     But  all  non-essential  differences  between 
the  Zwinglian  followers  of  Lasco  and  the  adherents  of 
Calvin  were  left  to  work   themselves   out.     These  non- 
essentials were  mainly  differences  in  custom,  not  in  doc- 
trine or  church  government.* 

*They  were  :  Whether  sprinkling  at  baptism  was  to  be  per- 
formed once,  twice  or  three  times  ;  whether  baptism  was  to  be 
performed  before  or  after  service  ;  whether  godfathers  were  to 
be  allowed  at  baptism,  or  the  whole  congregation  act  as  god- 
fathers. In  regard  to  the  Lord's  supper  :  Whether  the  elements 
were  to  be  received  in  a  sitting  or  standing  posture,  or  by  com- 
ing forward  to  the  communion  table.  (It  is  noticeable  that  all 
the  Reformed  churches,  except  of  France,  protested  against 
kneeling  at  the  Lord's  supper ;  for  kneeling  was  looked  upon 
as  a  sort  of  worship  of  the  supper.)  Another  difference  was, 
whether  the  elements  should  be  administered  in  connection 
with  the  reading  of  the  Scriptures,  or  during  the  singing  of  a 


ITS   CHURCH    GOVERNMENT.  285 

A  most,  important  decisioQ  of  this  synod  was  in 
reference  to  church  government.  This  Church  was  a 
free  Church  ;  not  being  united  to  the  state  at  all.  This 
allowed  it  freedom  for  development  and  secured  for  it 
independence  of  action.  It  introduced  pure  presbyte- 
rianism.  What  Lambert  of  Avignon  had  tried  to  in- 
troduce into  Hesse  in  1529,  but  was  not  able  fully  to 
do,  was  now  introduced  into  Germany  by  the  Wesel 
synod  of  1568.  It  was  a  fuller  presbyterianism  than 
existed  in  the  Reformed  Church  of  the  Palatinate,  for 
that  was  a  government  by  synods  ;  but  this  was  a  gov- 
ernment by  presbyteries.  The  decrees  of  this  Wesel 
synod  emphasized  the  prominence  of  the  eldership. 
According  to  them,  the  minister  was  called  by  the  eld- 
ers— aristocratic  presbyterianism.  This  was  afterward 
changed  by  the  next  synod  at  Emden  to  a  call  by  the 
whole  congregation — democratic  presbyterianism.  Thus 
was  the  aristocratic  presbyterianism  of  Calvin  set  over 
against  the  democratic  presbyterianism  of  Lasco,  and 
the  latter  prevailed.  The  decrees  of  this  synod  follow- 
quite  closely  the  church  order  of  Lasco  at  London, 
which  appointed  four  offices  in  the  congregation — min- 
isters, prophets,  elders  and   deacons.     The  prophets  or 

psalm.  Also  whether  in  ordination  the  minister  was  to  be  re- 
ceived by  the  laying  on  of  hands,  or  merely  by  prayer.  These 
non-essentials  were  left  for  each  congregation  to  decide,  while 
the  essentials  of  Reformed  doctrine  and  government  were  stead- 
fastly adhered  to.  This  synod  thus  set  the  example  for  future 
unions  among  the  Reformed  churches. 


286         THE   REFORMED   CHURCH    OF   GERMANY. 

teachers  were  to  explain  the  Bible  once  or  twice  a  week 
publicly — only  greater  liberty  was  now  given  the  con- 
gregation to  ask  questions,  than  at  London.  Here  was 
the  beginning  of  the  prayer  meeting  in  the  Reformed 
Church.  Prayer  meetings  are  as  old  as  the  Reformed 
Church  of  Germany.  Free  prayer  was  also  ordered  to 
be  used  in  the  regular  Sabbath  service.  The  decrees  of 
the  synod  say  :  "The  confession  of  sin  may  be  free  or 
after  the  Genevan  form.  The  prayer  after  the  sermon 
shall  be  free."  This  is  the  warrant  for  the  free  service 
now  so  common  in  the  Reformed  Churches  in  Germany 
and  in  this  land.  The  remaining  liturgical  forms  in 
the  regular  Sabbath  service  were  afterwards  driven  out 
of  the  Reformed  churches  of  the  Lower  Rhine  by  the 
revival  of  Labadie  in  the  next  century.  After  his  day 
the  Sabbath  service  in  the  Reformed  churches  was  free, 
the  liturgy  being  used  only  on  sacramental  occasions.* 
Before  the  service  an  elder  or  a  deacon  read  a  chapter 
out  of  the  Bible — a  custom  still  prevalent  in  the  Re- 
formed churches  of  Holland.  Dathenus  was  a  great 
believer  in  psalm  singing.  Through  his  influence,  its 
use  was  sanctioned,  and  the  singing  of  psalms  became 
customary  in  the  Reformed  Church  of  Germany.  These 
decrees  were  careful  to  avoid  any  Catholic  customs. 
Baptism  was  to  be  administered  only  by  the  minister, 
and  before  the  congregation,  except  in  cases  of  sickness  ; 
*Goebel,  I.,  420  ;  Goebel,  II.,  121-2. 


THE   SYNOD   OF   EMDEN.  287 

when  it  might  take  place  before  a  few  persons,  who 
would  be  considered  as  a  small  congregation.  The 
Lord's  supper  was  to  be  preceded  by  a  visitation  of  the 
members  and  a  preparatory  service.  The  congregation 
was  divided  into  parishes  and  visited  by  the  elders.  At 
the  Lord's  supper  only  bread  and  not  wafers  could  be 
used.  Church  discipline  was  to  be  strictly  enforced. 
The  Belgic  Confession  was  adopted.  Calvin's  catechism 
was  adopted  for  the  French  churches,  and  the  Heidel- 
berg ordered  to  be  used  in  the  German  congregations.* 
The  second  synod  was  held  at  Emden,  in  157L  It 
was  held  under  the  protection  of  Count  Adolph  of  Nue- 
nar.  It  also  aimed  to  place  itself  under  the  more  pow- 
erful protection  of  the  Elector  of  the  Palatinate,  by 
electing  Heidanus  of  the  Palatinate  as  president.  This 
synod  completed  the  work  begun  at  Wesel  three  years 
before.  It  thoroughly  organized  the  refugee  churches, 
or  '  churches  of  the  cross.'  It  organized  them  into 
general  synods,  provincial  synods  and  classes.  There 
were  three  provincial  synods  appointed — the  German, 
Belgic  and  English.  The  German  provincial  synod 
consisted  of  the  refugee  churches  of  Julich,  Cleve  and 
refugee  churches  of  Emden.  The  Belgic  provincial 
synod  was  divided  into  four  parts — Brabant,  Dutch 
Flanders,  Welsch  Flanders,  and  Holland.    The  English 

*Mouheim,  rector  of  a  school  at  Dusseldorf,  prepared  a  cate- 
chism in  1560,  which  was  mainly  Calvinistic.  It  was  to  be  used 
for  teaching  the  youth  in  the  schools.  • 


288         THE   REFORMED   CHURCH    OF   GERMANY. 

province  was  not,  as  yet,  districted.  Classes  were  to  be 
convened  every  six  mouths ;  consistories  were  to  hold 
weekly  meetings ;  provincial  synods,  yearly ;  and  the 
general  synod,  triennial  meetings.  Thus  was  completed 
the  ideal  of  Lambert  of  Avignon,  of  a  church  depen- 
dent not  on  birth,  but  on  conversion ;  of  a  church  not 
united  to  the  state,  but  free  from  it  and  existing  along- 
side of  it.  This  thorough  organization  greatly  facilitated 
the  growth  of  personal  piety  in  the  churches,  and  made 
them  strong  enougb  to  resist  Catholicism.  It  prepared 
them  for  the  baptism  of  blood,  which  came  upon  these 
churches  in  Western  Germany,  and  especially  in  Hol- 
land, whither  the  refugees  soon  returned.  Without  such 
an  organization,  and  the  personal  piety  it  developed,  the 
Germans  could  not  have  borne  the  Thirty  Years'  War, 
nor  the  Hollanders  the  eighty  years  of  conflict  before 
them. 

Classis  of  Cleve. 

The  first  meeting  of  this  newly  organized  classis  was 
held  at  Wesel  in  1572.  Over  the  gate  of  Cleve  is  cut 
in  stone  the  beautiful  and  significant  words:  "I  stand 
o])en  to  the  pious.''  The  gate  of  this  classis  stood  open 
to  the  pious,  and  it  gradually  received  German  and 
French  churches  into  itself.  It  thus  brought  the  Ger- 
mans of  the  lower  Rhine  into  the  Reformed  Church. 
This  classis  consisted  of  the  Wesel,  Goch,  Gennep,  Em- 
dec,  Rees  churches ;  and   the  church  of  Duisburg  was 


THE    CLASSIS   OF    CLEVE.  289 

invited  to  join  it.  Although  composed  of  Dutch  church- 
es, it  invited  French  churches  to  join  it.  Its  meetings 
were  generally  held  at  Wesel,  under  the  presidency  of 
Dr.  Nielle,  pastor  of  the  French  or  Walloon  congrega- 
tion at  Wesel.  And  now  comes  the  most  important 
event, — the  reception  into  this  Dutch  classis  of  its  first 
German  congregation.  The  German  congregation  at 
W^esel,  of  which  Heidfeld  was  pastor,  was  received  into 
it  in  1577.  This  prepared  the  way  for  reaching  the 
Germans  and  bringing  them  into  the  Reformed  Church. 
For  this  was  the  first  of  the  German  churches  on  the 
lower  Rhine  to  join  the  Reformed  Church.  Others 
soon  followed.  Thus  the  Holland  churches  began  to 
leaven  the  Germans  with  Reformed  doctrines  and  the 
simple  Reformed  worship,  and  with  their  earnest  piety, 
which  made  a  deep  impression  on  the  Germans  around 
them.  The  German  membership  in  the  classis  and 
synod  gradually  became  stronger  and  stronger.  When 
the  Dutch  refugees  went  back  to  Holland  after  1579, 
the  Dutch  element  in  the  classis  and  synod  became 
weaker  and  weaker,  until  the  whole  synod  with  its 
classes  became  a  German  organization.  The  Dutch 
language  was  gradually  supplanted  by  the  German  in 
the  sessions  of  synod.  And  when  the  Dutch  had  re- 
turned home,  there  remained  a  German  synod  of  Juiich- 
Cleve-Berg.  The  Cleve  classis  was  held  every  six 
months,  in  spite  of  the  dangers  from  the  troops  of  the 


290         THE   REFORMED   CHURCH   OF   GERMANY. 

neighboring  Netherlands.     It,   however,  had  no  meet- 
ings from  1598  until  1603,  because  it  was  devastated  by 

the  Spaniards. 

Classis  of  Julich. 

This  classis  lay  along  the  west  bank  of  the  Rhine, 
west  of  Cologne.  Its  two  main  centres  of  influence 
were,  strange  to  say,  the  Catholic  towns  of  Cologne  and 
Aix-la-Chapelle.  The  first  meeting  of  the  classis  of 
Julich  was  held  in  1572.*  It  adopted  the  Emden  Ar- 
ticles and  the  Belgic  Confession,  and  was  in  close  con- 
nection with  Heidelberg.  All  theological  questions  were 
submitted  to  the  faculty  of  Heidelberg  university,  and 
most  of  its  ministers  came  from  Heidelberg.  A  peculi- 
arity of  this  classis  was  that  nearly  all  of  its  churches 
were  secret  churches,  or  *  churches  of  the  cross.'  The 
congregations  had  to  worship  in  houses,  because  of 
the  persecutions  of  the  neighboring  Elector  of  Cologne 
or  of  the  Spaniards  of  the  Netherlands.  It  was  '  the 
Church  in  the  house,'  as  in  the  days  of  the  apostles. 
The  churches  were  also  influenced  toward  the  Reformed 
faith  by  being  so  near  to  Holland.  The  city  of  Aix- 
la-Chapelle  at  first  opposed  the  coming  of  the  Reformed 
refugees  ;  but  finally,  on  account  of  commercial  advan- 
tages, it  received  them.  Their  number  increased,  until 
in  the  latter  part  of  the  sixteenth  century  one-third  of 


^Originally  this  classis  included  in  it  what  afterwards  became 
the  synod  of  Berg,  east  of  the  Rhine. 


THE    CLAS8IS    OF    JULICH.  291 

the  towD  was  Reformed.  But  in  1598  Aix-la-Chapelle 
was  declared  under  the  bau  of  the  Spaniards.  Reformed 
worship  was  forbidden,  and  the  Evangelicals  had  to  flee. 
In  1612,  owing  to  the  protection  of  the  Elector  of  Bran- 
denberg  and  the  Duke  of  Pfalz-Neuberg,  they  again 
rose  to  a  majority,  so  that  three-fourths  of  the  town  was 
Reformed.  But  in  1614  persecutions  again  began. 
Thousands  had  to  leave.  The  rich  merchants  or  manu- 
facturers, who  remained,  went  to  neighboring  Vaels  in 
Holland  for  worship,  or  else  held  private  service  in 
their  homes.  Religious  freedom  was  not  granted  to  the 
Reformed  of  Aix-Ia-Chapelle  until  1804,  when  the 
French  granted  it  to  them.  The  Lutherans  and  the 
Reformed  were  then  given  the  St.  Anna  cloister.* 

Cologne,  though  the  seat  of  a  Catholic  archbishop- 
ric, was  another  centre  of  influence  for  the  Reformed 
Church.  Refugees  were  found  there,  who  had  worship 
in  their  own  houses.  Their  preachers  would  live  in 
the  neighboring  county  of  Julich  and  secretly  come  into 
the  city  when  they  were  to  preach.  To  escape  Catholic 
baptism  and  marriage,  the  Reformed  of  Cologne  would 
live  for  a  while  outside  of  the  city,  so  that  these  rites 
might  be  performed  by  Protestant  ministers.  They  did 
this,  although  there  was  a  fine  of  25  ducats  for  doing  it. 
Finally,  supported  by  the  Count  of  Nuenar,  whose  pos- 

*This  United  or  Evangelical  Church  numbered,  in  1850,  two 
thousand  souls. 


292         THE   REFORMED   CHURCH    OF   GERMANY. 

sessions  adjoined  the  western  end  of  Cologne,  they  took 
courage  to  ask  the  city  council  and  the  cathedral  chapter 
for  a  church,  in  which  the  Evangelicals  might  worship. 
To  encourage  these  Evangelicals,  Count  Adolph  of  Nue- 
nar  allowed  his  court  preacher  and  the  court  preacher 
of  Zweibriicken  (probably  Pantaleou  Candid  us),  who 
was  staying  with  him,  to  preach  at  Mechtern.*  Here 
service  was  held  for  three  successive  Sabbaths  in  June, 
1582.  This  created  a  great  excitement  in  Cologne. 
The  chapter  of  the  Catholic  cathedral  held  daily  meet- 
ings to  consider  how  the  influence  of  these  meetings 
might  be  stopped.  They  urged  the  city  council  to  shut 
the  city  gates ;  and  to  forbid  the  citizens  from  attend- 
ing Protestant  service,  by  arresting,  and  fining  and  ex- 
iling those  who  attended  them.  But  still  on  the  third 
Sabbath,  thousands  of  Evangelicals  went  to  these  ser- 
vices at  Mechtern.  The  city  council  made  an  attempt 
to  disperse  them  by  a  bombardment ;  but  this  did  not 
succeed,  because  the  neighboring  Reformed  counts  of 
Nuenar,  Bentheim,  Daun-Falkenstein  and  Solms  pre- 
vented it.  The  city  council,  now  thoroughly  alarmed 
at  the  power  of  the  Evangelicals,  as  revealed  by  these 
meetings,  shut  the  city  gates  against  the  market  people. 
All  strangers  who  had  come  into  the  city  since  1664, 
and  were  not  Catholics,   were  ordered  to   leave  within 


'Mechtern  was  hardly  a  quarter  of  an  hour's  walk  from  the 
Ehrenthor  or  honoi-gate  of  Cologne. 


THE    REFORMATION    IN    COLOGNE.  293 

four  weeks.  The  Elector  of  Cologne,  Gebhard  Truch- 
sess,  was  friendly  to  the  Evangelicals,  but  the  cathedral 
chapter  at  Cologne  was  strongly  against  them.  Geb- 
hard issued  a  church  order,  by  which  Protestantism  was 
introduced  into  many  towns  along  the  Rhine.  He  him- 
self became  Protestant  in  1582.  But  he  and  his  pious 
provost  of  the  cathedral,  Count  George  of  Solms,  were 
soon  displaced  from  their  positions.*  So  Cologne  was 
lost  to  Protestantism,  and  Gebhard  retired  to  Strasburg, 
where  he  became  a  member  of  the  cathedral  chapter, 
and  died  in  1601.  But  in  spite  of  these  persecutions, 
Protestantism  still  lingered  in  Cologne.  The  spirit  of 
Protestantism  rose  again  and  again.  Stephen  Isaac,  a 
priest  of  the  church  of  St.  Maria  Ablass,  began  preach- 
ing against  Catholic  errors  and  abuses.  He  had  before 
this  entered  into  a  discussion  with  some  deposed  priests 
of  Cologne,  and  they  had  given  him  a  paper  against  the 

*Had  the  Lutheran  princes  of  Germany  supported  Elector 
Gebhard,  his  whole  laud  would  have  become  Protestant.  An- 
other, and  the  fourth  Electorate  and  the  deciding  vote  in  the 
Electoral  college,  would  have  become  Protestant.  The  Bishop 
of  Wurzburg  was  ready,  too,  to  follow  Gebhard  into  Protestant- 
ism. But  Gebhard  had  allowed  Pantaleon  Candidus,  who 
was  suspected  of  leaning  to  Calvinism,  to  marry  him  to  Agnes 
of  Mansfield.  Gebhard  himself  was  suspected,  by  those  prin- 
ces, of  leaning  toward  the  Reformed  faith.  So  the  Lutheran 
Electors  of  Saxony,  and  Brandenberg,  and  also  of  the  Palati- 
nate, forsook  his  cause.  And  the  Catholics  deposed  him  from 
the  Electorate.  Only  Prince  Casimir  of  the  Palatinate  came  to 
his  assistance  with  a  small  army  ;  but  he  was  soon  called  away 
by  the  death  of  his  brother  Lewis,  to  resume  control  of  the  Pa- 
latinate. 


294         THE    REFORMED   CHURCH   OP   GERMANY. 

mass  by  Sadel,  which  Isaac,  to  his  horror,  found  he  was 
not  able  to  refute.  While  Gebhard  was  Elector,  he,  in 
1582,  preached  a  sermon  against  the  idolatry  of  the 
Catholic  Church,  which  caused  a  great  stir,  but  nothing 
was  done  against  him  through  the  protection  of  Geb- 
hard. But  when,  under  the  next  Elector,  Ernest  of 
Bavaria,  a  strict  Catholic,  he  preached  a  sermon  against 
the  use  of  pictures  in  the  Catholic  Church,  he  was  or- 
dered to  cease  preaching.  His  congregation  was  de- 
votedly attached  to  him.  As  he  did  not  appear  at  the 
appointed  time  to  hold  service,  the  people  assembled  in 
thousands  and  became  so  threatening,  that  finally  the 
Catholics  had  to  bring  him  out,  so  as  to  quiet  the  peo- 
ple. He  struggled  through  the  crowd  into  the  church, 
until  he  had  reached  the  choir.  Then  he  urged  the 
the  crowd  to  go  home  quietly,  which  they  did  at  his  re- 
quest. But  some  Jesuits  and  Spaniards,  who  were  in 
the  crowd,  and  who  used  abusive  expressions  against 
him,  received  blows  from  the  people,  who  strongly  sym- 
pathized with  him.  The  easily  fooled  populace  were 
soon  turned  from  their  adherence  to  Isaac  by  a  new 
Catholic  miracle.  A  picture  of  the  Virgin  in  the  chapel 
of  his  parish  began  to  sweat,  and  the  people  were  drawn 
to  it.  Isaac  said  he  would  rather  beg  than  accept  such 
idolatry  as  that  any  longer.  As  he  was  kept  under  the 
ban  at  Cologne,  he  left  the  city  and  became  a  minister 
in  the  Reformed  Church,  probably  in  Meurs  or  the  Pa- 


THE   CLASSIS   OF    JULICH.  295 

latinate.  Many  of  the  Reformed  went  to  this  county  of 
Meurs,  which  became  a  thoroughly  Reformed  land. 
But  in  1586  the  city  of  Meurs  was  stormed  by  the 
Spaniards.  The  Reformed  preacher  was  hung.  In 
1584  two  Reformed  preachers  at  Bonn  were  bound  hand 
and  foot,  and  thrown  into  the  Rhine.  One  of  them, 
John  of  Northausen,  saved  himself  almost  as  by  a  mira- 
cle. The  Reformed  faith  had  already  spread  into  Nue- 
nar.  Prince  Herman  II.  of  Nuenar  had  married  the 
sister  of  the  Prince  of  Orange,  which  led  liim  to  become 
Reformed.  His  successor.  Count  Adolph,  fully  intro- 
duced the  Reformed  faith,  and  Nuenar  became  a  strongly 
Reformed  county  and  an  asylum  for  the  persecuted  Re- 
formed. Count  Adolph  founded  a  Gymnasium  called 
the  Adolphinium ;  but,  being  defeated  in  the  war  for 
Cologne,  he  was  driven  out  of  his  land  by  the  Spaniards 
in  1586.  He  then  became  governor  of  Guelders  and 
Utrecht  in  Holland,  where  he  was  killed  by  an  explo- 
sion. 

But  although  Stephen  Isaac  was  driven  out  of  Co- 
logne by  the  Catholics,  Cologne  still  remained  a  nur- 
sery of  the  Reformed  faith.  John  Badius,  who  had 
been  a  friend  of  Olevianus,  was  a  pastor  of  the  refugee 
church  of  Cologne.  Through  his  efforts  the  Reformed 
faith  was  spread  through  the  neighborhood  around  Co- 
logne. He  introduced  the  Reformed  doctrines  into  the 
neighboring  county  of  Berg,  east  of  the  Rhine.    Through 


296         THE   REFORMED   CHURCH   OF   GERMANY. 

the  influence  of  Count  Adolph,  his  nephew  Count  Wir- 
ich  of  Dauu-Falkenstein,  at  Bruch  near  Muhlheim,  be- 
came Reformed.     His  neighbor,  Count  William  of  Bern- 
sau-Hardenberg,  married  the  sister  of  Count   Wirieh. 
He  also  introduced  the   Reformed  faith  into  his  land. 
Thus  the  evangelical  doctrines  were  introduced  east  of 
the  Rhine.     At  the  request  of  the  Count  of  Hardenberg, 
Badius  introduced  the  Reformed  faith  into  the  county 
of  Berg  by  organizing  a  synod  in  July  1589,  at  Neviges. 
At  first  this  synod  was  part  of  the  Julich  synod.     (The 
Julich  classes  had  by  this  time  grown  into  a  synod.)    This 
synod  of  Berg  gradually  introduced  Reformed  church 
customs  and  government  into  Berg,  where  the  Protest- 
ants previously  had  been  I^utherans.     In  1595  wafers 
were  put  away  and   bread    used  at   the  Lord's   supper. 
These  were  the  beginnings  of  what  is  now  the  largest 
Reformed   church   in  Germany  at  Elberfeld.     Badius, 
after  having  been  an  apostle  of  the  Reformed  faith,  was 
in  prisoned  at  Cologne  in  1590  and  then  went  to  Aix-la- 
Chapelle,  where  he  died.*     In  1608  another  Reformed 
episode  occurred  in  Cologne,   where  secret   worship  in 
private  houses  was  always  maintained.     An  elder  of  the 
Reformed  church  named  Reinerus  of  Roermond,  a  mem- 
ber of  the  coopers'  guild,  brought  charges  that  the  city 

*An  interesting  tale  in  German,  "  Die  Grafen  von  Broich  und 
Stj-rum,"  by  Frey,  published  at  Muhlheim  on  the  Ruhr,  gives 
an  idea  of  the  persecutions  and  wars  of  Count  Wirieh  of  Daun- 
Falkenstein. 


FOUNDING    OF    MUEHLHEIM.  297 

council  had  robbed  the  citizens  out  of  their  rights  by  un- 
lawful methods.  There  must  have  been  some  truth  in 
his  charge ;  for  he  found  many  supporters  among  the 
Catholics.  His  whole  guild  of  coopers  (although  only 
80  out  of  600  were  Protestants),  rebelled  against  the  city 
authorities.  The  other  guilds  or  trades  sympathized 
with  the  coopers.  The  city  council  would  have  impris- 
oned Reinerus,  but  dared  not,  because  of  the  number  of 
persons  friendly  to  him.  This  state  of  unrest  continued 
until  Easter,  1609,  when  the  city  council  joined  hands 
with  the  priests  and  tried  to  convert  this  labor  trouble 
into  a  religious  quarrel  between  the  Protestants  and  the 
Catholics.  The  guilds  that  were  composed  largely  of 
Catholics,  now  receded  from  sympathy  with  Reinerus, 
because  he  was  a  Protestant.  So  he  and  his  followers 
were  banished.  His  adherents  went  across  the  Rhine  to 
Miihlheim,  half  a  mile  away,  where  they  w^ould  be  under 
the  protection  of  the  princes  of  Brandenberg  and  Neu- 
berg;  as  the  whole  county  of  Julich-Cleve-Berg  had 
fallen  to  these  two  princes  by  inheritance.  Cologne  suf- 
fered very  greatly  by  this  loss  of  her  best  citizens,  but 
they  became  the  foundation  of  Miihlheim,  which  was 
destined  to  play  so  important  a  part  in  future  Reformed 
history.*  The  Reformed  who  remained  in  Cologne  went 
in  summer  to  Miihlheim  to  worship,  and    in    winter  to 

*MuehlheiEn  is  now  one  of  the  largest  Reformed  congrega- 
tions in  Germany. 

20 


298         THE    REFORMED    CHURCH    OF    GERMANY. 

Frechen  on  the  west  side  of  the  Rhine.  (The  Reformed 
people  of  Cologne  were  always  glad  to  have  the  troops  of 
Brandenberg  quartered  in  Cologne,  for  they  always  at- 
tended their  services.  Indeed  the  German  church  then 
numbered  2,000  souls.)  In  constitution  this  Reformed 
congregation  of  Cologne  was  interesting.  The  whole 
city  was  divided  into  ten  parts,  to  each  of  which  an  el- 
der was  allotted.  His  duty  was  to  notify  the  members 
when  service  was  held  in  the  various  houses.  During 
the  service  the  house  had  an  elder  as  a  watcher  on  the 
outside,  while  on  the  inside  of  the  door  stood  a  deacon 
If  any  member  committed  an  offense,  he  was  not  notified 
of  the  services  for  a  while. 

But  after  the  Duke  of  Pfalz-Neuberg  went  over  to 
Catholicism^  the  Catholics  were  again  stirred  up  against 
the  Protestants.     The  magistrates  of  Cologne,  one  day 
before  Michelis,  stirred  up  the  artisans  of  Cologne,  and 
told  them  that  if  they  did  not  destroy    Miihlheim    and 
raze  it  to  the  ground  the  next  night,  they  would  lose  their 
trade.     They  refused  to  do  so  until  the  mayor  and  coun- 
cil agreed  to  go  along.     So  under  the  pretense  of  seizing 
a  murderer,  they  shut  the  city  gates  of  Cologne,  so  that 
no  one  might  go  to  Miihlheim  and  warn  it  of  its  danger. 
At  3  A.  M.  eight  hundred   of  these  artisans,   and    two 
hundred  plunderers,  after  being  told  that  their  nefarious 
design  would  be  pleasing  to  the  Emperor  and  the  Duke 
of  Neuberg,  and  necessary  to  the  safety  of  Cologne,  started 


SYNOD  OF  JULICH-CLEVE-BERG  AND  MARK.        299 

out.  They  took  the  inhabitants  of  Miihlheira  unawares, 
razed  the  city,  so  that  not  one  stone  was  left  on  another. 
And  to  make  the  sad  condition  of  the  inhabitants  of  that 
city  worse,  not  one  of  them  was  allowed  to  find  refuge  in 
Cologne.    Miihlheim  afterwards  rose  to  prosperity  again. 

Synod  of  Julieh-  Cleve-Berg  and  Mark. 

These  three  synods  of  Julich-Cleve-Berg  continued 
to  be  an  integral  part  of  the  Reformed  Church  of  the 
Netherlands  until  1610.  They  received  protection  from 
Holland,  and  followed  it  in  theology,  receiving  from  it, 
ministers  and  customs.  The  district  of  Julich-Cleve- 
Berg  came  under  the  control  of  the  Elector  of  Branden- 
berg  and  the  Duke  of  Pfalz-Neuberg  in  the  early  part 
of  the  seventeenth  century.  The  Reformed  were  some- 
what fearful  of  this  change  of  rulers,  as  both  of  them 
at  first  were  Lutheran.  But  the  representative  of  the 
Elector  of  Brandenberg,  Margrave  Ernest,  in  1609,  re- 
ceived Reformed  communion  at  Wesel,  thus  going  over 
to  the  Reformed  faith.  And  finally  the  Elector  of 
Brandenberg  himself  became  Reformed  ;  while  the  Duke 
of  Neuberg  went  over  to  Catholicism.  Under  the  pro- 
tection of  the  Reformed  Elector  of  Brandenberg,  this 
synod  of  Julich-Cleve-Berg  became  independent  of  the 
Dutch  Reformed  Church.  It  was  enlarged  in  1611  by 
the  addition  of  the  synod  of  Mark.  This  general  synod 
met  every  two  years  for  two  hundred  years,  except  in  a 
few  instances,  when  war  prevented  it. 


300         THE    REFORMED    CHURCH    OF    GERMANY. 

Thus  we  see  that  the  Reformed  Church  along  the 
lower  Rhine  existed  and  grew  with  difficulty.  The 
Cologne  war  brought  persecution.  After  the  death  of 
the  Duke  of  Julich-Cleve,  Brandenberg  and  Pfalz- 
Neuberg  had  a  quarrel  about  the  succession  to  that  land. 
They  ruled  it  conjointly  for  about  a  year,  and  then  they 
broke  with  each  other.  The  Elector  Sigismund  in  an 
evil  hour  boxed  the  ear  of  the  Duke  of  Neuberg,  at  a 
wedding  at  Dusseldorf.  The  Duke  went  away  in  a 
rage,  finally  joined  the  Catholics,  and,  as  a  result,  the 
Reformed  were  very  greatly  oppressed  in  Berg  and  Ju- 
lich,  the  counties  that  fell  to  him.  The  Duke  of  Pfalz- 
Neuberg  converted  Neuberg  back  to  the  Catholic  Church 
again ;  and  tried  to  do  so  in  Julich  and  Berg,  but  failing 
to  do  so,  he  took  sides  with  the  Lutherans  against  the 
Reformed.  When  the  Duke  of  Neuberg  found  that 
the  Reformed  General  Synod  had  been  formed  in  1610, 
he  ordered,  to  offset  it,  the  organization  of  a  Lutheran 
synod  in  1612.  Thus  the  two  Churches  remained  dis- 
tinctly separated.  But  the  Julich  and  Berg  Churches, 
being  under  his  control,  suffered  severely.  During 
these  various  persecutions  along  the  Rhine,  whole  clas- 
ses and  congregations  went  down  ;  as  for  instance  in 
Meurs,  west  of  the  Rhine.  The  persecutions  were  not 
so  severe  east  of  the  Rhine,  in  Berg,  because  of  the 
influence  of  the  neighboring  Protestant  princes  of  Wal- 
deck,  Hesse  and   Brandenberg.       But   Solingen,  east  of 


CUSTOMS   OF   THE    RHENISH    CHURCH.  301 

the  Rhine,  suffered  severely  in  1600.  The  pulpit  of 
Elberfeld  was  forbidden  to  pastor  Kalman,  and  the 
church  given  to  the  Catholics,  although  only  six  fami- 
lies in  the  town  were  Catholics.  All  these  persecutions 
begot  an  intense  hatred  among  the  people  for  Catholic 
forms.  The  result  was  that  the  lower  Rhine  Reformed 
Church  became  most  bitterly  opposed  to  all  Romish 
forms  and  faith.  This  synod  was  very  much  influenced 
by  the  neighboring  Holland  Church.  The  early  Dutch 
emigrants  left  their  stamp  on  it,  by  their  personal  piety 
and  strict  discipline.  The  churches  were  often  called 
nothing  but  meeting  houses  or  preaching  houses.  The 
pulpit  stood  in  the  middle  of  the  church,  under  it  a 
simple  communion  table  without  crucifixes,  crosses  and 
pictures;  as  the  second  commandment  forbade  all  these. 
The  preacher  never  turned  his  back  to  the  people,  but 
always  faced  them,  never  facing  the  altar.*  The  church 
services  were  begun,  as  in  Geneva,  by  the  reading  of 
Scripture  for  half  an  hour,  then  a  short  hymn,  prayer, 
hymn,  sermon,  prayer,  hymn,  benediction.  The  serv- 
ice was  very  plain.  The  church  government  was  thor- 
oughly presbyterian.  A  representation  of  the  elders 
was  required  in  the  church  courts.  If  a  minister  ap- 
peared without  an  elder,  the  congregation  was  censured, 
or  the  minister  not  admitted  ;  although  exceptions  were 
made  in  favor  of  poorer  congregations.     There  was  no 

*Goebel,  II.,  118-9. 


302        THE   REFORMED   CHURCH   OF   GERMANY. 

distinction  made  between  the  ministers  and  the  elders  in 
the  church  courts.  They  spoke  of  each  other  as  brother- 
ministers  and  brother-elders.  The  president  was  elected 
at  each  meeting,  and  as  such  held  the  office  of  inspector 
until  the  next  meeting.  Ever  since  1674  they  had  the 
custom,  on  the  Sabbath  before  the  meeting  of  a  classis 
or  synod,  of  having  special  prayer  for  it  in  the  churches. 
The  government  of  this  Church  was  so  throughly  pres- 
byterian  that  Olevianus  said  he  envied  it.  The  elder 
was  the  equal  of  the  minister,  except  in  the  administra- 
tion of  the  sacraments  and  preaching.  But  if  the  min- 
ister was  hindered  from  coming,  as  he  often  was,  in  the 
unsettled  state  of  the  country,  the  elder  conducted  the 
service  of  singing,  prayer,  catechization,  reading  of  the 
Bible,  and  sermon.  Free  prayer  was  especially  permit- 
ted, only  they  were  required  not  to  make  a  long  intro- 
duction to  the  prayers.  The  elder  assisted  the  minister 
in  visiting  the  sick  of  the  congregation  before  the  com- 
munion. Often  a  special  person  was  appointed  as  a 
comforter  of  the  sick,  as  is  now  the  custom  in  the  Dutch 
churches.  This  Church  was  very  strict  in  its  discipline, 
disciplining  its  members  for  dancing,  Sabbath-breaking, 
attending  shooting-matches  and  carousals.  It  was  espe- 
cially severe  against  any  return  to  papist  ceremonies. 
No  members  were  allowed  to  go  to  a  grave,  where  a 
cross  was  carried.  No  cross  was  allowed  to  be  erected 
in  a  Reformed  graveyard  ;  so  great  was  their    horror  of 


CUSTOMS   OF   THE   RHENISH   CHURCH.  303 

crosses.  No  carpenter  dared  to  make  a  Catholic  cross, 
or  work  on  a  Catholic  church.  Marriage  with  unbe- 
lievers was  forbidden.  Baptism  and  marriage  in  an 
empty  church,  without  the  presence  of  a  congregation, 
was  not  considered  proper,  according  to  Reformed  ideas, 
"  which  knew  no  altar  or  outward  sanctuary."* 
Through  this  strict  discipline,  morality  reigned  and 
prosperity  came.  Even  when  they  were  persecuted, 
they  prospered.  In  Julich  and  Berg  the  Reformed 
were  shut  out  from  all  public  positions,  because  of  their 
religion.  But  the  Reformed  laid  hold  of  the  commerce, 
and  laid  the  foundations  of  the  great  trade  along  the 
lower  Rhine,  which  is  still  in  the  hands  of  the  Re- 
formed at  Elberfeld  and  Barmen.  In  their  church  life 
there  was  a  sharp  distinction  between  the  ^  converted^  and 
^  unconverted,'  between  the  Christians  and  the  world. 
This  distinction  continues  until  this  day  along  the  lower 
Rhine.f  The  Reformed  believed  in  personal  experience 
and  a  change  of  heart.  They  laid  great  stress  on  in- 
ward piety.  This  depth  of  personal  piety  in  the  six- 
teenth century  prepared  the  Church  to  receive  the  pie- 
tism of  the  seventeenth  century.  Although  the  Church 
was  afterwards  united  with  the  state,  and  members 
were  received  into  the  Church  by  birth,  and  not  by  pro- 
fession, as  at  first;  still  the  Church  never  lost  this  char- 

*Goebel,  II.,  122. 

fSee  Autobiography  of  Krummacher,  page  111. 


304         THE    KEFORMED   CHURCH    OF   GERMANY. 

acteristic  of  personal  religious  experience.  The  lower 
Rhine  Reformed  Church  was  always  a  pietistic  Church. 
When  the  different  synods  were  united  by  Brandenberg, 
in  1611,  and  even  before  that  time,  dissensions  arose 
between  the  large  open  or  public  churches  and  the  se- 
cret private  churches.  The  latter  had  been  called 
'  churches  of  the  cross,'  and  had  worshipped  in  private 
houses.  The  former  were  the  large  national  churches, 
having  church  buildings  granted  them  by  the  city  au- 
thorities. But,  although  the  latter  were  the  stronger  in 
number,  the  former  were  the  stronger  in  piety ;  and 
they  complained  of  the  looseness  of  discipline  in  the 
public  national  churches.  Thus  the  secret  church  of 
Cologne  in  1598  complained  that  the  open  Duisburg 
church  received  some  at  communion,  whom  they  had 
disciplined.  The  first  general  synod  in  1610  tried  to 
mollify  the  dissensions  between  these  two  kinds  of 
churches  within  its  borders;  and  the  strife  was  checked. 
The  deep  personal  piety  of  the  secret  churches  found  an 
opportunity,  to  penetrate  with  their  strong  leaven,  the 
worldly  formal  Christians  of  the  open  churches.  Even 
before  this  general  synod,  some  of  the  rigid  members 
did  not  want  to  commune  with  all  the  members  of  the 
open  churches.  So  the  synod  of  Berg,  in  1597,  granted 
permission  to  one  of  its  congregations  to  have  a  separate 
coin.nunion  service  for  tliose  of  its  members  who  would 
not    commune    with    the   congregation;     because    they 


SYNOD   OF   BENTHEIM.  306 

thought  certain  persons  in  it  were  not  fit  to  come  to  the 
Lord's  table.  "  And  in  case  some  one's  conscience  is 
not  yet  satisfied,  the  free-willed  Christians  shall  have 
a  preparatory  service  on  a  certain  day  by  the  pastor,  and 
shall  together  hold  the  Lord's  supper  by  themselves."* 
This  was  the  beginning  of  the  ecclesiola  in  ecclesia,  of 
conventicles  in  the  congregations  of  the  Reformed 
Church,  an  ecclesiastical  recognition  of  the  "converted" 
in  the  congregation. 

Bentheim  and  TecMenberg. 

Another  stronghold  of  the  Reformed  faith  was  found 
in  Bentheim  and  Tecklenberg,  two  counties  north  of 
Cologne.  Count  Arnold  II.  of  Bentheim  introduced  the 
Reformed  doctrines  into  his  laud  of  Bentheim-Steinfurt- 
Teckleuberg-Rheda.  His  mother,  as  early  as  1574,  had 
introduced  them  into  the  county  of  Tecklenberg,  and  he 
followed  her  example.  Count  Arnold  had  been  edu- 
cated under  Reformed  influences  at  Herborn,  Heidel- 
berg and  Utrecht.  He  had  also  been  a  pupil  of  John 
Sturm  at  Strasburg.  He  came  fully  under  the  influence 
of  the  Reformed  Church  by  marrying  a  Reformed 
princess,  the  Countess  of  Nuenar.  By  this  marriage  he 
greatly  enlarged  his  territory,  and  also  gaiued  the  Re- 
formed faith.  In  1582,  at  the  death  of  his  mother,  he 
assumed    the   control  of  his   land.     In    1583,  he  called 

*Goebel,  II.,  73. 


306         THE   REFORMED   CHURCH   OF   GERMANY. 

Kemmener  as  pastor,  who  administered  the  Lord's  sup- 
per after  the  Reformed  fashion,  on  the  fifth  of  Decem- 
ber, in  the  castle  chapel  of  Bentheim.  A  few  weeks 
later,  he  commissioned  Kemmener  to  purge  his  churches 
of  all  altars,  pictures  of  saints,  and  the  like.  He  was 
greatly  supported  in  his  wOrk  by  his  Councillor,  John 
of  Munster.  In  1587  he  gathered  the  ministers  of 
Schuttorf,  Tecklenberg  and  Northeim,  and  his  highest 
officials  at  Tecklenberg,  so  as  to  arrange  for  a  thorough 
introduction  of  the  Reformed  faith.  In  1 604  a  General 
Synod  was  held  at  Schuttorf,  composed  of  the  ministers 
of  the  counties  of  Bentheim,  Tecklenberg  and  Steinfurt. 
It  throughly  organized  the  congregations  by  the  ap- 
pointment of  boards  of  elders  or  presbyteries  in  each 
congregation.  At  the  close  of  this  first  General  Synod, 
the  count  made  an  address  full  of  earnest  devotion,  ex- 
horting the  synod  to  continue  in  its  good  work.  He 
also  founded  a  Reformed  gymnasium  at  Schuttorf  in 
1589,  which  was  afterwards  removed  to  Burg  Steinfurt. 


CHAPTER  III.— SECTION  V. 

Re-introduction  of  the  Reformed  Faith  into  the  Palatinate 
by  Prince  Casimir,  1583—92. 

We  now  return  to  the  Palatinate  again.  When 
Elector  Lewis  died,  in  1583,  he  did  not  deprive  Prince 
Casimir  of  the  position  as  guardian  of  his  nine-year-old 
son,  Frederick.  But,  being  afraid  that  Casimir  might 
influence  his  son  to  go  over  to  the  Reformed  faith,  he 
appointed,  as  co-guardians  with  him,  Duke  Lewis  of 
Wurtemberg,  Landgrave  William  of  Hesse,  and  Mar- 
grave George  Frederick  of  Braudenberg.  Prince  Casi- 
mir was  in  camp  at  Deutz,  opposite  Cologne,  fighting 
for  Elector  Gebhard,  when  he  heard  of  his  brother 
Lewis'  death.  He  at  once  hastened  to  Heidelberg,  to 
assume  the  guardianship  of  the  young  prince.  This  he 
could  do  without  waiting  for  the  other  princes  appointed 
by  Lewis,  as  the  gold  bull  or  law  of  the  empire  gave 
the  guardianship  of  a  child  to  the  nearest  relative.  And 
Elector  Frederick  III.,  the  boy's  grandfather,  had  also, 
unknown  to  Lewis,  left  a  testament,  appointing  Casimir 
the  guardian  in  case  of  the  death  of  Lewis  before  the 
boy  was  of  age.  The  wise  Frederick  III.  foresaw 
what  actually  took  place,  and  provided  for  it.     '*  Lewis 


308         THE   REFORMED    CHURCH    OF   GERMANY. 

will  not  do  it,  Fritz  will,"  was  his  prophecy,  now  about 
to  be  fulfilled. 

But,  of  course,  the  Lutherans  raised  a  great  outcry 
against  Casimir's  sole  guardianship.  Casimir,  however, 
was  master  of  the  situation ;  for  "  possession  is  nine 
points  of  the  law."  He  knew  that,  if  they  contested  his 
right,  by  the  time  the  case  had  taken  its  weary  way 
through  a  German  imperial  court,  Frederick  would 
probably  be  of  age,  before  it  would  be  settled.  At  any 
rate,  by  the  time  it  was  decided,  the  young  prince,  if  not 
of  age,  would  have  been  thoroughly  trained  up  in  the 
Reformed  faith.  Thus  the  want  of  respect,  which 
Lewis  showed  to  his  father,  (when  he  would  not  visit 
him  before  his  death,)  recoiled  against  Lewis.  For  Cas- 
imir paid  no  more  attention  to  Lewis'  wishes  than 
Lewis  had  done  to  his  father's.  Casimir  at  once  pro- 
ceeded to  educate  young  Frederick  in  the  Reformed 
faith,  by  dismissing  his  Lutheran  instructors,  and  giv- 
ing him  Reformed  teachers  instead.  The  Lutherans,  in 
retaliation,  brought  up  charges  that  Casimir  was  a  se- 
vere and  harsh  guardian  to  the  boy.  These  charges 
were  probably  not  true ;  for  Frederick  always  showed 
the  greatest  love  and  respect  for  Casimir's  memory, 
which  he  would  not  have  done,  if  Casimir  had  been  an 
unkind  guardian  to  him.  Prince  Casimir  again  intro- 
duced the  Reformed  faith  into  the  Palatinate.  The 
great  mass  of  the  people  had  remained  Calvinistic  under 


RE-INTRODUCTION   OF   REFORMED   FAITH.        309 

Elector  Lewis'  Lutheran  reign.  The  Reformed  were  iu 
the  majority,  except  around  the  Elector's  court  at  Hei- 
delberg, and  along  the  borders  of  Wurtemberg.  Casi- 
mir,  therefore,  found  it  an  easy  matter  to  re-introduce 
the  Reformed  faith.  His  course  in  doing  so  was  in  di- 
rect contrast  with  the  severe  measures  of  his  brother 
Lewis,  in  1577,  when  he  introduced  the  Lutheran  faith. 
Lewis  had  driven  out  all  the  Reformed  ministers.  But 
Casimir  did  not  drive  out  all  the  Lutherans.  Casimir 
introduced  the  idea  of  religious  liberty,  and  the  Luther- 
ans were  allowed  their  right  to  worship,  provided  they 
did  not  rail  against  the  Reformed  as  heretics.  When  a 
number  of  the  Reformed  people  of  Heidelberg,  (who 
had  had  no  Reformed  service  for  eight  years,)  petitioned 
that  St.  Peter's  or  the  Franciscan  church  be  given  them 
for  worship,  Casimir  granted  their  request.  His  court 
preacher,  Tossanus,  whom  he  had  brought  with  him 
from  Neustadt,  and  who  still  smarted  under  his  expul- 
sion by  Lewis,  wanted  Casimir  to  give  to  the  Reformed 
the  church  of  the  Holy  Ghost,  the  largest  in  the  city. 
But  Casimir  did  not  grant  Tossanus'  request.  He  still 
allowed  the  Lutherans  the  largest  church  in  Heidelberg. 
And  he  ordered  Ehem  to  announce  to  the  people  that 
the  church  of  the  Holy  Ghost  should  remain  Lutheran. 
He  arranged  a  conference  between  the  Lutherans  and 
the  Reformed,  so  as  to  harmonize  them.  But  nothing 
came  out  of  it.     The  Lutherans  were  ordered  to  abstain 


310        THE   REFORMED   CHURCH    OF   GERMANY. 

from  polemics  and  from  calling  the  Reformed  heretics 
from  their  pulpits.  But  they  would  not  do  this.  Al- 
though Casimir  had  not  persecuted  one-tenth  as  much  as 
Lewis  had  done  even  in  the  first  month  of  his  reign,  yet 
the  Lutherans  raged  against  him  violently  from  their 
pulpits.  Even  the  Lutheran  court  preacher  in  the  court 
chapel  used  an  offensive  comparison  between  Casimir 
and  the  treasonable  King  of  Judah.  Men  like  Ehem 
and  Tossanus,  who  had  been  banished  by  Lewis  in 
1577,  were  burning  with  a  desire  to  get  some  revenge, 
for  the  injuries  they  had  suffered.  But  Casimir  held 
these  Reformed  zealots  back.  Still  the  Lutherans  railed 
against  him  and  the  Reformed.  So,  finally,  he  dismissed 
the  court  preachers,  Paul  and  John  Schecksius,  super- 
intendent Patiens  and  others.  But  there  were  still  five 
Lutheran  preachers  left  in  Heidelberg,  more  than 
enough  for  the  small  Lutheran  community  there.  Cas- 
imir then  sought  to  have  another  conference,  so  as  to 
unite  all  parties.  For  this  purpose  he  secured  the  ser- 
vices of  the  learned  Gryneus  from  Basle,  to  conduct  the 
discussion  for  the  Reformed ;  while  Marbach  entered 
the  lists  for  the  Lutherans.  The  whole  court  was  pres- 
ent. The  conference  turned  out  to  be  only  an  eight  day 
word-fight ;  and  both  sides  claimed  the  victory.  It  only 
made  the  strife  worse.  So  Casimir  saw  there  was  only 
one  way  to  settle  the  strife  ;  and  that  was  for  one  of  the 
parties  to  go  away.     So    he   dismissed   the  Lutheran 


RE-INTRODUCTION    OF    HEID.    CATECHISM.         311 

preachers,  although  the  Lutheran  catechism  was  allowed 
to  be  used  in  the  Neckar  school,  provided  the  Lutheran 
students  sometimes  attended  Reformed  service.  Then 
the  whole  Reformed  church  order  of  1563,  published  by 
his  father,  Elector  Frederick  III.,  was  re-introduced. 
The  Heidelberg  Catechism  was  also  re-introduced,  in 
1585.  The  Formula  of  Concord  was  put  out  of  sight, 
as  the  Heidelberg  Catechism  rose  in  honor.  Thus  the 
revenges  of  history  came  back.  The  Lutherans  did  not 
think  of  comparing  the  removal  of  their  preachers  at 
this  time  with  the  removal  of  the  Reformed  in  1577. 
Casimir's  course  was  much  milder  than  Lewis^  had  been. 
His  dismissals  were  slower.  Casimir  found  it  easy  to 
introduce  Reformed  doctrines,  for  it  was  not  the  forcing 
of  a  new  faith  on  the  people,  as  Lewis  had  done ;  but  it 
was  giving  the  people,  who  were  still  Reformed,  an  op- 
portunity to  worship  God  according  to  the  dictates  of 
their  own  consciences. 

Casimir  had  a  smaller  catechism  prepared  and 
printed  in  1585,  an  abstract  of  the  Heidelberg  Cate- 
chism ;  only  simplified  and  made  more  popular.  It 
was  intended  for  the  uneducated  adults  and  for  half- 
grown  children.  Casimir  also  caused  a  church  visi- 
tation to  be  made  throughout  the  land.  This  revealed 
great  ignorance  on  the  part  of  the  people.  Very  few 
knew  the  main  points  of  the  catechism.  Adult  men,  in 
the  Lord's  prayer,  said  ^deliver  us  from  the  kingdom,' 


312         THE    KEFORMED    CHURCH    OF   GERMANY. 

instead  of  Meliver  US  from  evil/  Id  the  creed  they 
said  '  ponsified  under  Pilate/  instead  of  ^  suffered  under 
Pontius  Pilate/  Thus  Prince  Casimir  thoroughly  re- 
converted the  Palatinate  to  the  Reformed  faith. 

But  the  strife,  while  it  ended  in  the  Palatinate,  did 
not  cease  outside  of  it.  Pareus  printed  Luther's  Bible, 
and  happened  to  leave  out  some  of  Luther's  comments, 
which  expressed  his  peculiar  views.  This  raised  a 
storm  among  the  Lutherans,  who  so  highly  revered 
Luther's  words.  Jacob  Andrea,  who  considered  Cal- 
vinism and  Jesuitism  as  being  the  same,  wrote  a  letter 
to  the  young  Elector  Frederick  (which  was  very  severe 
against  the  Reformed),  trying  to  influence  him  from 
the  Reformed  to  the  Lutheran  faith.  Pareus  answered 
the  attacks  made  on  him  by  the  high  Lutherans,  and 
there  was  a  great  theological  controversy. 

Meanwhile  the  legal  question  of  the  guardianship  of 
the  young  Elector  was  taking  its  slow  way  through  the 
German  courts.  The  more  Casimir  re-introduced  the 
Reformed  faith  into  the  Palatinate,  the  more  did  the 
Lutheran  guardians  threaten  to  depose  him  from  his 
position  as  executor.  The  Duke  of  Wurtemberg  went 
so  far  as  to  deliberate  with  Landgrave  William  of  Hesse 
about  raising  an  army  against  Casimir.  But  Casimir, 
old  soldier  that  he  was,  would  not  allow  such  trifling; 
and  he  very  decidedly  gave  Wurtemberg  to  understand 
that  she  must  mind  her  own  business,  or  he  would  take 


REIGN    OF   CASIMIR.  313 

up  the  sword  against  her.  This  quieted  VVurtetnberg. 
Meanwhile  the  case  of  the  guardianship  of  Frederick 
pursued  its  sleepy  course  through  the  German  courts, 
until  finally  the  imperial  decree  was  issued  in  1589,  six 
years  after  the  death  of  Lewis.  The  decree  was  against 
Casirair  and  in  favor  of  the  Lutheran  guardians,  and 
urged  that  the  young  prince  Frederick  should  be  given 
over  to  the  Lutheran  administrators.  But  the  decree 
could  not  be  enforced.  The  prince  and  the  Palatinate 
people  were  devoted  to  Casimir;  and  he  ruled  as  safely 
three  years  after  the  decision  of  the  court,  as  he  had 
done  six  years  before. 

During  Casimir's  reign,  on  the  second  of  March, 
1586,  a  very  important  conference  was  held  at  Mum- 
pelgard,  in  Wurtemberg.  Although  this  conference 
did  not  take  place  within  Palatinate  territory;  yet  it 
was  such  an  important  event  in  Reformed  church  hist- 
ory, that  we  note  it  here.  At  this  conference  under 
Beza  of  Geneva,  the  doctrine  of  predestination  was,  for 
the  first  time,  acknowledged  or  treated  as  a  peculiar 
doctrine  of  the  Reformed  Church,  over  against  the  Lu- 
theran. Although  the  early  reformers  of  the  Lutheran 
Church  were  all  predestinarians,  yet  the  Lutheran 
Church  now  gave  it  up.  It  took  Melancthon's  syner- 
gism, but  refused  his  doctrine  of  the  sacraments.  Here- 
after the  Reformed  were  predestinarian,  the  Lutherans 
aiiti-predestinarian. 
21 


314         THE    REFORMED    CHURCH    OF    GERMANY. 

Under  Casimir's  rule,  the  university  and  the  schools 
of  the  Palatinate  again  resumed  their  former  prosperity. 
He  was  deeply  interested  in  the  French  Reformed,  and 
gave  them  the  cloister  church,  where  they  worshipped 
under  Jean  De  La  Chasse. 

Through  Casimir  and  Calvinism  the  Palatinate  came 
into  close  union  with  the  other  Reformed  states  of  Hol- 
land, Switzerland  and  England.  But  none  of  the  Ger- 
man states,  except  Hesse  and  Anhalt,  joined  the  Prot- 
estant Union,  until  Elector  Christian  I.  of  Saxony,  who 
was  friendly  to  Calvinism,  joined  this  union  of  nations, 
which  was  formed  against  the  Catholic  League.*  But 
Elector  Christian  I.  of  Saxony,  the  brother-in-law  of 
Casimir,  died,  and  that  broke  up  the  alliance  among 
the  German  states.  Soon  after,  Casimir  himself  died, 
January  6,  1592.  Had  Casimir  lived,  the  Reformed 
would  have  been  stronger  in  numbers  and  influence;  and 
the  Reformed  of  France,  with  whom  he  sympathized 
and  whom  he  helped,  would  have  been  saved  many  per- 
secutions. He  was  a  good  ruler;  his  religious  life, 
however,  being  colored  by  his  character  as  a  soldier. 
He  was  an  able  administrator,  a  fine  general  and  a  kind 
relative  To  his  efforts,  the  Reformed  Churches  owe  a 
great  deal ;  for  he  was  their  standard-bearer  in  Germany 
in  their  time  of  weakness. 

♦The  ultimate  result  of  the  formation  of  these  two  opposing 
unions  or  leagues  was  the  Thirty  Years'  War. 


CHAPTER  III— SECTION  VI. 

Elector  Frederick  IV.  of  the  Palatinate  and  his  Heign, 
1592-1610. 

Elector  Frederick  IV.,  the  only  surviving  son  of 
Elector  Lewis,  was  born  at  Am  berg,  on  the  fifth  of 
March,  1574.  His  early  teachers  were  intense  Luther- 
ans. They  aimed  to  make  him  a  strict  adherent  of  the 
Formula  of  Concord.  They  compelled  him  to  learn  and 
to  pray  by  the  hour  and  the  minute.  But  they  thus 
stultified  the  free  development  and  play  of  his  boyish 
faculties.  When  his  father  died  in  his  ninth  year,  and 
his  uncle  Casimir  took  charge  of  him,  the  methods  of  ed- 
ucation were  improved.  Casimir  stopped  this  mechanical 
training  of  the  boy,  and  strove  to  develop  his  latent  tal- 
ents, especially  in  the  direction  of  statesmanship.  Fred- 
erick liked  this  kind  of  training  better  than  the  training 
of  his  father's  early  instructors.  Casimir  dismissed  the 
Lutheran  teachers  and  raised  him  under  Reformed  influ- 
ences. When,  after  having  been  under  his  uncle's  con- 
trol for  nine  years,  Casimir  suddenly  died,  it  was  a  sad 
and  painful  experience  to  the  young  prince.  For  it  threw 
all  the  responsibility  of  ruling   the    Palatinate    on    his 


316         THE    REFORMED    CHURCFI    OF   GERMANY. 

young  head  and  shoulders  ;  he  was  not  as  yet  of  age — not 
quite  eighteen  years  old.  His  uncle  and  guardian  had 
hardly  died,  when  his  troubles  began.  Casiniir  was  not 
yet  buried,  when  Frederick's  great  uncle,  the  brother  of 
Elector  Frederick  III ,  Count  Richard  of  Simniern, 
claimed  the  right  to  be  administrator  of  the  boy.  For 
he  still  lacked  six  weeks  of  being  eighteen  years  of  age. 
Count  Richard,  who  was  a  sort  of  busybody  among  the 
Palatinate  princes,  (for  he  had  before  interfered  with 
Frederick  III.  in  his  introduction  of  the  Reformed  doc- 
trines into  the  Upper  Palatinate  ;  he  had  interfered  with 
Casimir  when  he  tried  to  bring  the  Palatinate  back  to 
the  Reformed  faith,  after  the  death  of  Lewis),  now  again 
attempted  to  interfere  with  Frederick  IV.  He  claimed 
that,  as  he  was  the  nearest  relative  to  the  young  prince, 
he  ought  to  be  his  guardian  during  the  remaining  six 
weeks  of  his  minority.  Count  Richard  came  to  Heidel- 
berg, nine  days  after  Casimir's  death,  with  a  retinue  of 
forty  or  fifty  followers,  and  claimed  his  right  to  act  as 
guardian.  He  not  only  claimed  it  because  Frederick 
was  not  yet  eighteen  ;  but  he  said  the  gold  bull  or  law 
of  Emperor  Sigismund  made  the  age  of  maturity  to  be 
twenty-five  years,  and  he  wanted  to  rule  Frederick  for 
seven  years.  But  these  efforts  of  Count  Richard  only 
embittered  Frederick  against  the  Lutherans.  Frederick 
replied  that  the  gold  bull  of  Sigismund  had  never  been 
adopted  by  the   German    government   or   promulgated 


FREDERICK    VI.    A    CALVINIST.  317 

through  the  Geruian  empire,  and  that  he  would  be  of  age 
at  18,  and  did  not  need  a  guardian  for  the  time  that  inter- 
vened. Finally,  after  ten  days  of  heated  debate.  Count 
Richard  went  away.  But  after  he  had  gone,  he  made  as 
much  trouble  for  Frederick  as  he  possibly  could,  by  his 
efforts  and  influence.  He  succeeded  in  preventing  Fred- 
erick from  being  invested  with  his  electorate  until  1594. 
His  whole  aim  seems  to  have  been  to  introduce  Luther- 
anism  into  the  Palatinate,  or  at  least  to  frighten  the  young 
prince  into  Lutheranism.  Indeed,  it  was  hoped  by  many 
that,  now  that  Frederick  was  removed  from  the  Re- 
formed influence  of  Casimir,  he  would  declare  himself  a 
Lutheran  and  an  adherent  of  the  Formula  of  Concord. 
The  Duke  of  Wurtemberg  and  the  Elector  of  Branden- 
berg  wrote  to  Frederick  so  as  to  influence  him  to  Luth- 
eranism. But  the  action  of  Richard  hindered  rather 
than  helped  their  cause.  Frederick's  answer  cut  off  all 
hope  that  he  would  be  a  Lutheran.  He  declared  that  he 
would  cling  to  his  Bible  and  to  his  Calvinism.  And 
back  of  him,  too,  stood  the  Reformed  states  of  Holland 
and  England  to  support  him.  Queen  Elizabeth  of  Eng- 
land showed  great  zeal  and  interest  for  his  protection. 
She  even  sent  to  the  Elector  of  Saxony  and  complained 
ao-ainst  the  interference  of  the  Lutherans  in  Frederick's 
case.  She  advised  them,  if  they  knew  what  was  best  for 
them,  not  to  persecute  the  Reformed,  but  keep  in  har- 
mony and  unity    with  them.     Thus  by   acknowledging 


318         THE    REFORMED    CHURCH    OF    GERMANY. 

his  Reformed  faith,  Frederick  fulfilled  the  prophecy  his 
grandfather  Frederick  III.  made,  when  the  boy  was  two 
years  old,  "Lewis  will  not  do  it,  Fritz  will  do  it.'^ 

Frederick  had  the  same  difficulty  with  the  Upper 
Palatinate  that  all  the  Reformed  princes  had.  Casimir 
had  clung  to  the  idea  of  his  father  that  that  land  might 
be  converted  to  the  Reformed  faith.  So,  soldierlike,  he 
went  about  it  by  force  to  accomplish  his  purposes.  Find- 
ing he  could  not  conv^ert  it  from  Lutheranism,  he  en- 
deavored to  draw  it  from  the  high  Lutheranism  of  the 
Formula  of  Concord,  and  make  it  Melancthonian,  like 
Nuremberg  and  Hesse.  Frederick  IV.  now  followed  in 
the  footsteps  of  Casimir,  and  tried  to  introduce  the  Re- 
formed faith  into  the  Upper  Palatinate.  But  the  inhab- 
itants resisted  and  even  raised  a  riot,  in  1592.  The  Up- 
per Palatinate  joined  its  efforts  with  Count  Richard,  to 
prevent  Frederick  from  being  invested  with  the  Elector- 
ate. Finally  Frederick  had  to  do  what  all  his  prede- 
cessors had  done  before  him,  —  grant  the  Upper  Palati- 
nate free  exercise  of  its  Lutheran  faith. 

What  Casimir  had  been  able  to  do  only  partially  in 
his  brief  reign,  Frederick  now  completed.  He  thorough- 
ly introduced  the  Reformed  faith  and  government 
throughout  his  realm.  The  synods  and  classes  organ- 
ized by  his  grandfather,  were  as  far  as  possible  held 
again.  The  synods  did  not  get  fully  under  way,  but 
classes  met  regularly    under  the  supervision  of  a  mem- 


FREDERICK    IV.    A    STATESMAN.  319 

ber  of  the  consistory.  A  thorough  church  visitation  was 
carried  on  throughout  all  the  Palatinate.  Efforts  were 
also  made  by  his  theologians  to  unite  the  Lutherans  and 
the  Reformed.  David  Pareus,  one  of  his  most  prominent 
theologians,  took  up  the  work,  begun  by  Bucer  half  a 
century  before,  and  aimed  at  organic  union  between  the 
two  denominations.  Pareus  wrote  his  Irenicum,  in 
which  he  aimed  to  bring  out  the  points  of  unity  between 
the  Lutherans  and  the  Reformed,  rather  than  their  differ- 
ences. This  was  the  first  work  published  on  the  union 
of  different  denominations.  It  forestalled  the  union  of 
the  Reformed  and  Lutheran  Churches  in  Germany  at  the 
beginning  of  this  century,  and  began  to  prepare  the  way 
for  the  ultimate  organization  of  the  Evangelical  Alliance 
in  this  century.  But  the  high  Lutherans  of  the  six- 
teenth century  opposed  any  effort  at  union  ;  so  his  labors 
were  fruitless.  Frederick,  as  he  saw  he  could  not  gain 
theological  unity,  determined  to  secure  political  unity. 
He  thus  became  the  political  leader  of  the  Reformed 
Church,  as  his  grandfather,  Frederick  III.,  had  been  its 
theological  leader.  He  greatly  felt  the  need  of  political 
unity.  The  Catholic  Church,  since  the  Council  of  Trent 
and  the  rise  of  the  Jesuits,  had  renewed  her  youth  and 
strength.  And  as  the  danger  from  the  Catholics  in- 
creased, Frederick  entered  into  closer  union  with  King 
Henry  IV.  of  France,  Queen  Elizabeth  of  England,  and 
the  states  of  Holland.  He  also  aimed  to  bring  all  the 
Protestant  princes  of  Germany,    Lutheran   as    well  as 


320         THE   REFORMED    CHURCH    OF   GERMANY. 

Reformed,  into  the  alliaoce,  so  as  to  offset  the  growing 
power  of  the  Catholic  league.     He  thus  began  a  politi- 
cal movement,  which  ultimately  culminated  in  the  Thir- 
ty Years'  War.     The  formation  of  this  Protestant  Union 
was  a  tremendous  undertaking,  too  much  for  a  twenty- 
year-old  boy  to  fully  grasp.     Now   for   the    first   time 
Protestantism  became  a  political  power  in  Europe  against 
the  Catholics.     In  the  Union  Frederick  took  the  fore- 
most position  among  the  Protestant  nobles  of  Germany. 
''He  thus  opened  the  way  for  his  house,  either  to  highest 
fame  or  lowest  fall.''   But  the  Lutheran  opposition  or  in- 
difference in  Germany  lessened  the  power  of  the  Union. 
This  was  very  unfortunate,  as  it  weakened  the  Protest- 
ants against  the  Catholics,  and  made  them  weak  for  the 
Thirty  Years'  War.     Frederick  also  aimed  to  spread  the 
Union  by  introducing  the  Reformed  faith  into  as  many 
lands  as  possible.     It  was  introduced  into  the  neighbor- 
ing county  of  Zweibriicken,   and   also  into  Baden-Dur- 
lach.     Through  his  influence,  the  Duke  of  Anhalt,  who 
married  his  cousin,  introduced  the  Reformed  faith  into 
his  duchy  near  Berlin  ;  and  thus   the    Reformed   faith  • 
found  an  entrance  into  Eastern  Germany,  where  it  was 
so  bitterly  opposed,  as  a  heresy  savoring  of  Mohammed- 
anism.    In  Hesse  Cassel,  the  new  Landgrave    Maurice 
also  introduced  the  Reformed  faith.     The  result  of  this 
was,  that  Frederick's  influence  became  so  powerful  that 
some  of  the  Lutheran  nobles  joined  the  Union.     Every- 
thing seemed  to  favor  this  Protestant  Alliance.     But  an 


DEATH    OF    FREDERICK    IV.  321 

apple  of  discord  was  thrown  into  the  Protestant  camp, 
by  the  death  of  the  Duke  of  Julich-Cleve  and  Berg. 
Three  Protestant  German  Princes  then  came  forward  to 
claim  this  duchy,  Brandenberg,  Pfalz-Neuberg  and  Sax- 
ony. When  the  Archduke  Leopold  entered  Julich  with 
a  Spanish  army  to  conquer  it,  all  Germany  was  aroused 
against  him.  The  Emperor,  however,  by  favoring  the 
claims  of  Saxony  for  this  duchy,  hoped  to  gain  the 
drunken  Elector  Christian  11.  of  Saxony  to  his  side. 
Everything  now  favored  the  Protestants  in  their  oppo- 
sition to  the  Emperor  and  the  Spaniards.  France  had 
united  with  them  to  overthrow  the  Hapsburg  house  of 
Austria.  King  Henry  of  France  wrote,  that  by  the  20th 
of  May,  1610,  he  would  cross  the  border  of  Germany 
with  his  army.  The  house  of  Hapsburg  was  falling  to 
pieces  and  Catholicism  was  weakened  by  discontent. 
But  just  at  this  grand  crisis,  which  would  have  placed 
Europe  in  the  powder  of  the  Protestants,  King  Henry  IV. 
of  France  was  assassinated.  May  14, 1610,  by  Ravaillac. 
This  was  the  first  illustration  of  the  teachings  of  the 
Jesuits,  that  it  was  right  to  murder  bad  kings.  '^The 
end  justifies  the  means."  On  the  day  that  Julich  was 
attacked,  the  Catholic  League  invested  Elector  Christ- 
ian II.  of  Saxony  with  the  right  to  Julich  territory. 
This  made  Saxony  hostile  to  the  Protestant  Union  and 
weakened  it.  Just  then,  at  this  critical  time,  Elector 
Frederick  IV.  died,  September  19,  1610.  Thus  the 
golden  opportunity  for  Protestantism    was   lost.     Both 


322         THE    REFO^RMED    CHURCH    OF    GERMANY. 

the  Catholic  League  and  the  Protestant  Union  finally 
agreed  to  lay  down  arras,  and  submit  to  arbitration. 
And  the  Thirty  Years'  War  was  postponed  till  eight 
years  later. 

Elector  Frederick  lY.,  though  a  zealous  Calvinist, 
lacked  the  simplicity  of  his  grandfather's  piety.  His 
grandfather  was  the  theological  prince,  his  uncle  Casi- 
mir  the  warlike  prince,  he  was  the  diplomatic  prince  of 
the  Reformed  of  Germany.  He  was  fonder  of  amuse- 
ments, of  the  chase  and  of  architecture  than  his  prede- 
cessors. In  the  first  year  of  his  reign,  the  famous  Rit- 
terhaus,  just  opposite  the  church  of  the  Holy  Ghost,  was 
built.  It  was  built  by  a  French  Reformed  architect, 
Belier  of  Tourney,  one  of  the  refugees,  and  was  modeled 
after  the  Otto  Henry's  building  in  the  castle.  It  has 
survived  two  conflagrations.  Frederick  also  built  the 
northern  part  of  the  castle,  the  Fredericksbau,  in  which 
is  a  beautiful  chapel.  Over  the  entrance  to  the  chapel 
was  the  inscription  in  Hebrew  and  Latin  :  "The  gate  of 
the  Lord  into  which  the  righteous  shall  enter."  He  also 
founded  the  city  of  Manheim,  at  the  junction  of  the 
Neckar  and  the  Rhine,  which  was  destined  to  play  such 
an  important  part  in  the  future  history  of  the  Palatinate. 
A  terrible  storm  at  its  founding  foreboded,  according  to 
superstition,  the  terrible  destruction  of  Manheim  in  later 
wars.  Frederick  greatly  aided  the  cause  of  education 
in  the  Palatinate  and  brought  his  Electorate  to  a  fore- 
most position  among  German  states. 


CHAPTER  III.— SECTION  VII. 

Introduction  of  the  Eeformed  Faith  into  Zwsibruecken. 

Zweibriicken  was  one  of  the  counties  belonging  to 
the  Palatinate  princes.  Next  to  the  Electoral  Palati- 
nate, it  was  the  most  important  of  the  Palatinate  prov- 
inces. Count  John  I.  of  Zweibriicken  was  a  very  zealous 
Lutheran  ;  and  in  spite  of  the  intercession  of  his  cousin, 
Elector  Frederick  III.  of  the  Palatinate,  he  tried  to 
banish  all  Zwinglians  from  his  land.  The  particular 
event  that  turned  Count  John  toward  the  Reformed 
faith,  was  the  publication  of  the  Formula  of  Concord 
and  its  attempted  introduction  into  his  land.  Zwei- 
briicken, like  the  rest  of  the  Palatinate,  was  originally 
Melancthonian.  When  the  Formula  of  Concord,  with 
its  high  Lutheranism,  was  brought  to  it,  it  was  met  by 
opposition.  The  minister  at  Zweibriicken,  Heilbron, 
who  was  a  high  Lutheran,  argued  in  favor  of  the  intro- 
duction of  the  Formula  of  Concord.  But  Pantaleon  Can- 
didus,  the  superintendent  of  all  the  churches  and  the 
successor  of  the  ill-fated  Flinsbach,  opposed  the  Form- 
ula. Still,  under  the  influence  of  Marbach,  the  prince 
became  more  favorable  to  the   Formula.     He  gathered 


324         THE   REFORMED   CHURCH    OF   GERMANY. 

his  ministers  to'a  conference  in  1577,  and  they  approved 
of  the  Formula  of  Concord.  But  this  was  hardly  done, 
before  a  reaction  took  place.  Candidus  and  Chancellor 
Schnebel  led  the  opposition  to  it. 

They  took  courage,  when  they  heard  that  Prince 
Casimir  of  the  Palatinate,  and  Landgrave  William  of 
Hesse,  as  well  as  the  states  of  Anhalt  and  Holstein,  had 
refused  to  subscribe  to  it.  At  a  conference  at  Kirkl,  in 
November,  1579,  the  majority  of  the  ministers,  led  by 
Pantaleon  Candidus,  pronounced  against  the  Formula 
of  Concord.  A  deputation  were  then  sent  by  the  high 
Lutherans  to  the  Count  of  Zweibriicken,  to  urge  him  to 
accept  the  Formula  ;  but  it  was  all  in  vain.  Heilbron, 
who,  contrary  to  the  command  of  the  prince,  would  not 
abstain  from  preaching  against  the  Melancthonians,  was 
dismissed.  Still,  although  the  Count  with  his  minis- 
ters decided  thus  against  the  high  Lutherans,  yet  he  did 
not  at  once  go  over  to  the  Reformed  faith,  until  a  num- 
ber of  years  later.  His  clergy,  however,  felt  themselves 
getting  more  and  more  out  of  sympathy  with  the  Lu- 
therans of  Germany,  who  were  becoming  very  high  in 
their  Lutheranism.  Candidus  at  length  allowed  the 
Reformed  catechism  to  be  used  with  the  Lutheran.  He 
also  preached  the  Reformed  doctrine  of  the  Lord's  sup- 
per. For  this,  his  assistant,  Stuys,  rebelled  against  him, 
and  refused  to  administer  the  Lord's  supper  with  him. 
Stuys  was  dismissed,  and   Beuther  and   Hexamer  were 


TFIE   ZWEIBRUECKEN    CATECHISM.  325 

called  to  Zvveibriicken.  Candidus  drew  nearer  and 
nearer  to  the  Reformed  theologians  of  Heidelberg.  But 
it  was  not  until  1588,  that  Count  John  finally  went 
over  to  the  Reformed  faith.  He  did  not  do  so,  until 
he  saw  that  there  was  no  hope  for  Melancthonianism  in 
Germany.  He  had  waited  so  long,  before  taking  the 
step,  that  the  Reformed  nobles  looked  on  him  with  dis- 
trustful eyes.  At  length,  having  become  satisfied  that 
there  was  no  hope  for  him  from  the  high  Lutherans,  he 
proceeded  to  make  his  court  and  land  Reformed.  His 
idea  was  the  idea  of  the  age,  "like  prince,  like  people." 
He  held  that  it  was  the  princess  duty  to  see  that  his 
people  had  good  religious  training.  For  this  purpose, 
he  determined  to  publish  a  catechism.  He  feared  to  in- 
troduce the  Heidelberg  Catechism,  because  of  the  oppo- 
sition he  might  have  to  meet.  He  concluded  that  the 
easier  way  was  to  arrange  a  catechism  of  his  own  and 
introduce  it  in  his  land.  So,  like  his  relative.  Elector 
Frederick  III.  of  the  Palatinate,  he  determined  to  pub- 
lish a  catechism.  Those  Palatinate  princes  seem  to 
have  been  great  catechetical  authors.  '  And  as  Freder- 
ick's catechism  committed  him  to  the  Reformed  faith, 
so  Count  John's  catechism  committed  him  to  the  same 
faith.  In  1588  he  appointed  his  superintendent  Can- 
didus, and  Professor  Hexamer  and  court  })reacher  Beu- 
ther,  to  draft  a  catechism.  He  aimed  to  have  a  Re- 
formed   catechism,    only    modeled    in   form   after    Lu- 


326         THE    REFOKMED   CHURCH    OF   GERMANY. 

ther's  catechism.  In  it,  the  five  heads  of  Christian  doc- 
trine were  treated  as  in  Luther's  book,  but  to  them  dis- 
cipline was  added.  And,  as  in  Luther's  catechism,  the 
doctrine  of  the  sacraments  took  up  a  large  part  of  the 
book  ;  and  this  is  its  great  difference  from  the  other  Re- 
formed catechisms.  This  Zweibriicken  Catechism  was 
published  in  March,  1588,  and  printed  in  German  at 
Heidelberg.  It  had  an  introduction  by  the  Count,  urg- 
ing its  reception  by  all  the  churches  in  his  land.  With 
his  superintendent  Candidus,  the  prince  went  every- 
where in  his  county,  trying  to  introduce  the  catechism. 
It  w^as  very  generally  received  by  the  churches. 
Changes  in  customs  were  made,  to  make  them  correspond 
to  the  catechism,  and  so  as  to  make  the  churches 
Reformed.  Before  the  eod  of  the  year,  Candidus 
could  say  ^  that  the  churches  had  been  purged  of  the 
leaven  of  papacy.'  Count  John  idolized  his  catechism, 
as  Elector  Frederick  .III.  had  done  to  his  Heidelberg 
Catechism  ;  and  he  rejoiced  that  it  received  less  opposition 
than  the  Heidelberg  Catechism  had  received.  Outside 
of  Zweibriicken,  this  catechism  was  not  introduced,  al- 
though it  received  favorable  notice  elsewhere.  In  1620 
a  Herborn  pastor,  Exter,  issued  a  commentary  on  it. 
The  publication  of  this  catechism  led  to  a  discussion  be- 
tween the  theologians  of  the  Duke  of  Pfalz-Neuberg 
and  the  Zweibriicken  ministers  at  Neuberg.  The  Luth- 
erans aimed  to  get  Count  John  to  give  up  his  catechism. 


ZWEIBRUECKEN    BECOMES    REFORMED.  327 

Heilbron,  tlie  dismissed  court  preacher  of  Count  John 
(who  was  now  the  court  })reacher  of  the  Duke  of  Pfalz- 
Neuberg),  debated  for  the  Lutherans ;  while  Hexamer 
and  Beuther  defended  the  catechism.  This  conference 
did  not  change  Count  John  in  the  least.  He  w^ent  on 
and  issued  a  church  order  in  1593,  based  on  his  cate- 
chism. He  also  received  French  Reformed  refugees 
into  his  land  in  1593,  which  greatly  strengthened  the  in- 
fluence of  the  Reformed  Church.  His  successor  was 
Count  John  II.,  who  had  been  educated  at  Heidelberg 
and  in  France  under  Reformed  influences.  Count 
John  II.  was  a  wise  statesman,  and  became  the  guardian 
of  Elector  Frederick  V.  of  the  Palatinate,  after  the 
death  of  his  father. 

The  brother  of  Count  John  II.  of  Zweibriicken  mar- 
ried the  daughter  of  the  King  of  Sweden ;  so  his 
nephew,  as  Charles  X.,  became  King  of  Sweden.  Thus 
Sweden  and  Zweibriicken  were  linked  together.  Zwei- 
brucken  was  thus  brought  within  the  pale  of  the  Re- 
formed Church.  An  ineffectual  attempt  was  made  by 
Count  Ernest  Frederick  of  Baden-Durlach  to  introduce 
the  Reformed  faith  into  his  territory.*  But  Count 
Ernest's  efforts  died  with  him,  his  brother  George  bring- 
ing back  Lutheranism  after  his  death. 

*There  were  two  Badens  at  that  time,  Baden-Baden  and 
Baden-Durlach.  Durlacli  included  the  territory  around  the 
present  city  of  Carlsruhe.  The  Duke  of  Baden  is  at  present  the 
successor  of  the  Palatinate  princes.  Most  of  the  Palatinate  is 
now  under  his  control. 


CHAPTER  IV. 

Introduction  of  the  Reformed  Faith  into  Cen- 
tral and  Eastern  Germany. 

SECTION  I. 

Rise  and  Fall  of  Crypto-Calvinism  in  Saxony. 

The  beginning  of  the  history  of  the  Reformed 
Church  in  Eastern  Germany  was  the  controversy  about 
Crypto-Calvinism  in  Saxony.  Crypto-Calvinism  was 
the  forerunner  of  Calvinism  in  three  eastern  lands. 
Not  fully  Calvinistic  itself,  it  yet  prepared  the  way  for 
it.*  These  Melancthonians  were  not,  at  first,  Calvinistic. 
In  1664  the  professors  at  Wittenberg  gave  an  opinion 
against  the  Heidelberg  Catechism.    It  was  the  Maulbron 

*There  were  three  names  given  to  the  Melancthonian  party 
of  Lutherans— Phillipists,  Synergists  and  Crypto-Calvinists. 
They  were  called  Phillipists  after  the  first  name  of  Melancthon, 
who  was  usually  called  Doctor  Phillip.  They  were  also  called 
Synergists  from  Melancthon's  doctrine  about  synergism  or 
freedom  of  the  will.  They  were  called  Crypto-Calvinists  (secret 
Calvinists)  by  their  enemies.  But  Phillipists  was  the  wide  term 
for  all  Melancthonians,  and  included  in  it  Synergists  and  Crypto- 
Calvinists.  The  name  Crypto-Calvinist  was  applied  to  those 
who  held  the  Calvinistic  doctrine  of  the  sacrament,  but  not  of 
predestination.  As  we  have  seen,  Melancthon  neared  Calvin's 
doctrine  of  the  Lord's  supper.  Many  of  his  followers  went  a 
little  farther  than  he  did,  and  became  Calvinists. 


THE   WITTENBERG    CATECHISM.  329 

conference,  that  opened  their  eyes  to  the  drift  of  Luth- 
eranism.  They  could  not  agree  with  its  doctrine  of 
ubiquity,  as  set  forth  there  by  the  Wurteraberg  theolo- 
gians. So  Saxony  joined  hands  with  Hesse  in  opposing 
the  high  Lutherans.  But  in  Saxony  they  lacked  a  theo- 
logical leader,  who  should  be  the  successor  of  Melanc^ 
thou.  After  his  death,  his  mantle  fell  on  his  son-in-law 
Peucer.  Peucer  was  the  rector  of  the  university  at 
Wittenberg,  and  court  physician  to  the  Elector  Augustus 
of  Saxony,  but  he  was  almost  as  much  of  a  doctor  as  he 
was  a  theologian.  The  Elector  was  at  that  time  entirely 
under  his  control,  and  Peucer  used  this  influence  to  fill 
the  professorships  at  Wittenberg  with  Melancthonians, 
such  as  Pezel,  the  younger  Cruciger,  Widebram  and 
Moller.  A  new  catechism,  called  the  Wittenberg  Cate- 
chism, endorsed  by  the  Wittenberg  faculty,  was  pub- 
lished in  1571.  It  was  prepared  in  order  to  oppose  the 
new  and  rising  doctrine  of  ubiquity.  It  was  to  be  used 
in  the  upper  classes  in  the  schools,  while  Luther's  cate- 
chism remained  in  use  in  the  lower  classes.  This  cate- 
chism was  no  new  departure,  for  Melancthon's  ^  Loci 
Communes'  or*  Common  Places'  had  been  taught  in 
the  schools  for  years  before.  But  this  catechism  caused 
a  great  stir.  The  high  Lutherans  at  once  opposed  it, 
because  it  attacked  their  pet  doctrine  of  ubiquity.  Sel- 
necker  attacked  it  as  a  departure  from  the  Lutheran 
faith.  The  Wittenberg  theologians  defended  it.  But 
22 


■S30        THE   REFORMED   CHURCH   OF   GERMANY. 

the  Elector  Augustus  had  faith  in  the  Lutheran  ortho- 
doxy of  his  professors  at  Wittenberg,  and  approved  it. 
The  Elector,  however,  to  prove  that  his  land  was  true 
to  the  Lutheran  faith,  called  a  conference  of  his  theo- 
logians and  ministers  at  Dresden  in  1571,  and  desired 
them  to  prepare  a  good  Lutheran  doctrine  of  the  Lord's 
supper.  The  decrees  of  this  Dresden  consensus  were 
Melancthonian,  and  very  decidedly  attacked  the  high 
Lutheran  doctrine  of  ubiquity.  The  Jena  theologians 
of  lower  Saxony  then  attacked  the  Elector  for  having 
Calvinists  in  his  land.  This  stirred  up  the  Elector,  for 
he  held  he  was  a  good  Lutheran.  His  adherence  to 
the  Lutheran  faith  was  so  strong  that,  when  Cranach, 
the  great  painter,  painted  for  him  a  picture  of  his  Wit- 
tenberg professors,  he  bade  him  watch ;  for  he  wanted 
no  Calvinist  among  them.  He  once  said  that,  if  he 
had  a  Calviuistic  vein  iu  his  body,  he  hoped  the  devil 
would  tear  it  out. 

But  gradually  the  Elector  came  more  and  more  un- 
der the  influence  of  the  high  Lutherans.  This  change 
was  largely  due  to  his  wife,  the  daughter  of  the  King 
of  Denmark,  who  was  an  intense  Lutheran.  He  also 
had  a  political  motive  for  changing  to  high  Lutheran- 
ism.  Saxony  had  always  been  the  leading  Lutheran 
Electorate,  and  the  Prince  of  Saxony  the  leader  among 
Lutheran  princes.  But  he  found  that,  through  the 
opposition  of  the   high  Lutherans  of  North  Germany, 


DISCOVERY    OF   CRYPTO-CALVINISM.  331 

he  was  fast  losing  his  position  as  leader  of  the  German 
states.  So,  to  resume  his  foremost  position,  he  felt  the 
necessity  of  becoming  a  high  Lutheran.  And  his  old 
enmity  to  the  high  Lutherans  of  Ducal  Saxony  had 
now  passed  away.  With  the  death  of  the  last  son  of 
Count  John  Frederick  of  Ducal  Saxony  (the  standard- 
bearer  of  the  high  Lutherans,)  Augustus  became  the 
guardian  of  his  two  young  sons,  and  this  event  inclined 
him  toward  high  Lutheranism.  He  also  began  reading 
the  books  of  Andrea,  the  high  Lutheran  theologian  of 
Wurtemberg,  and  was  influenced  by  his  court-preacher, 
who  sympathized  with  Andrea.  Just  then,  when  he 
was  inclining  toward  high  Lutheranism,  an  event  oc- 
curred that  brought  matters  to  a  crisis,  and  led  him  to 
a  decision.  It  was  the  publication  of  a  book  in  1574, 
called  "  Exegesis  of  the  Lord's  supper."  It  was  a  post- 
humous manuscript  of  Cureus,  and  was  published  by 
Vogelin  of  Leipsig.*  This  book  held  the  Calvinistic 
view  of  the  Lord's  supper  (although  without  naming 
Calvin,)  and  rejected  the  Lutheran  doctrine  of  mandu- 
cation,  or  the  reception  of  Christ's  body  through  the 
mouth.  It  also  greatly  praised  the  organization  of  the 
Reformed  Church,  and  the  steadfastness  of  the  Calvin- 
ists  under  martyrdom.  After  its  appearance  the  Elector 
of  Saxony  was  warned  against  it  by  the  Duke  of  Wur- 

♦This  book  was  at  first  supposed  to  have  been  printed  at  Ge- 
neva, as  it  was  printed  on  French  paper  and  first  sold  outside 
of  Saxony. 


332         THE    REFORMED   CHURCH    OF   GERMANY. 

temberg  and  the  King  of  Denmark.  The  book  was 
popularly  attributed  to  Peucer  and  his  associates  at 
Wittenberg.  Peucer  denied  all  knowledge  of  the  book, 
and  Vogelin  under  oath  confirmed  the  innocence  of  the 
Wittenberg  professors.  Peucer  says  he  never  saw  the 
book,  until  one  was  brought  to  him  in  his  sickness  in 
prison  at  Pleissenberg,  years  afterward.  But,  though 
this  charge  was  not  true,  the  high  Lutherans  used  it  as 
a  piece  of  theological  spite,  and  charged  Peucer  and  his 
associates  with  being  the  authors.  Elector  Augustus, 
now  thoroughly  roused  by  these  charges,  influenced  of 
the  high  Lutherans  around  him,  and  fearing  a  Calvin- 
istic  conspiracy,  ordered  a  visitation  to  be  made  in  Wit- 
tenberg. His  commission,  when  it  visited  Wittenberg, 
found  many  Calvinistic  books  at  the  stores  and  among 
the  students.  They  also  found  confidential  correspon- 
dence between  the  Wittenberg  professors  and  the  theo- 
logians of  the  Palatinate.  The  Elector  then  required 
the  professors  to  state  their  theological  position  about 
Calvinism.  Court  preacher  Schutz,  Consistorial-rath 
Stossel,  Rector  Peucer  and  Chancellor  Cracow  were 
arrested.  As  Widebram,  Cruciger,  Pezel  and  Moller 
delayed  stating  their  theological  position  about  Calvin- 
ism, they  were  also  placed  under  a  strict  guard  of 
fifty  soldiers,  brought  to  Leipsic  and  placed  as  oriminals 
in  the  prison  at  Pleissenberg.  The  result  of  these 
arrests  was,  that  Pezel,  Cruciger,  Widebram  and  Moller 


PUNISHMENT   OF   CRYPTO-CALVINI8T8.  333 

were  banished  from  the  country  and  went  to  Nassau. 
This  complete  victory  of  the  high  Lutherans  was  cele- 
brated in  all  the  churches  of  Saxony,  and  prayers  were 
offered  against  Calvinism. 

But  severer  penalties  were  visited  on  the  other 
Crypto-Calvinists.  Schutz  was  sentenced  to  a  life-long 
house  arrest,  from  which  only  an  accident  released  him 
in  1589.  Cracow  was  tortured  on  the  rack,  so  that  he 
died  in  prison  in  1575.  The  commandant  of  the  fort, 
where  he  was  imprisoned,  who  deigned  to  be  merciful 
to  him  and  furnish  him  with  writing  materials,  was 
driven  out  of  the  town,  after  having  been  whipped. 
Stossel  was  so  tormented  in  the  fort  Scuftenberg  that  he 
took  a  fever,  which  hastened  his  death,  Peucer  was 
sent  to  Rochlitz,  where  he  was  tortured  on  the  rack  and 
finally  brought  to  the  Pleissenberg'  prison  at  Leipsic. 
His  wife  was  not  permitted  to  see  him,  and  she  died 
soon  after.  Here  all  writing  materials  were  taken  away 
from  him.  He  was  not  allowed  to  have  any  books,  not 
even  the  Bible.  Year  after  year,  for  twelve  years,  he 
lived  in  this  damp,  dirty  prison,  while  all  the  while  his 
fortune  was  consumed  and  his  health  undermined.  He 
broke  down  with  sickness  and  was  not  expected  to  re- 
cover. In  his  sickness  he  asked  that  he  might  have  the 
Lord's  supper  administered  to  him.  But  who  among 
the  strict  orthodox  ministers  of  Saxony  would  give  the 
communion  to  one  who,    they    thought,    had  so  belied 


334         THE   REFORMED   CHURCH   OF   GERMANY. 

their  faith  ?  The  theologians  Andrea  and  Selnecker  vis- 
ted  him  in  prison,  and  tried  to  convert  him  to  Lutheran- 
ism.  As  he  did  not  agree  with  them,  he  received  from 
them  an  answer  worthy  of  the  Catholic  inquisition,  "  that 
means  would  be  found  to  make  him  recant,  if  they 
should  be  red  hot  pincers/'*  When  they  found  he  would 
not  recant  his  Calvinism,  they  gave  him,  as  an  antidote 
for  his  heresy,  not  the  Bible,  but  the  Formula  of  Con- 
cord. As  a  German  historian  says  :  "  Thus  man's  word 
was  given  to  him,  instead  of  God's  word."  Peucer, 
robbed  of  all  writing  materials,  prepared  for  himself  an 
ink  made  out  of  beer  and  burned  bread-crusts.  (Neces- 
sity is  the  mother  of  invention.)  He  plucked  a  quill 
from  a  goose's  wing,  which  had  been  given  to  him  to 
sweep  away  the  cobwebs  of  his  prison.  And  on  the 
Formula  of  Concord  which  he  hated,  he  wrote  with 
this  pen  and  ink  his  confession  and  autobiography.  Ten 
years  elapsed  before  the  Elector  thought  of  him.  Then 
the  Elector  asked  him  to  give  him  another  confession 
of  faith.  But  Peucer  in  this  confession  still  remained 
true  to  Melancthon.  While  Peucer  was  in  prison,  he 
had  influential  friends  who  interceded  for  him,  and 
tried  to  gain  his  release  from  prison.  In  1575  Emperor 
Maximilian  visited  the  Elector.  He  asked  Augustus 
to  release  Peucer,  that  Peucer  might  become  his  body 
physician.      Augustus  refused.       When    the    Emperor 

*Hagenbach's  History  of  Relormation,  vol.  III.,  page  272. 


PEUCER  IN   PRISON.  336 

asked  him  why  he  had  imprisoned  Peucer,  he  answered 
that  he  did  not  want  any  one  about  him  who  did  not 
agree  with  him  in  religion.  Maximilian  replied :  "  I 
do  not  assume  such  a  thing  for  myself,  for  I  have  no 
power  over  the  conscience,  and  dare  not  force  any  one's 
belief.''  An  noble  answer  from  a  Catholic.  The  Cath- 
olic was  more  Protestant  than  the  Elector.  For  Cath- 
olic Kings  and  Emperors  had  Protestant  physicians  in, 
those  days.  Ah  !  Augustus  forgot  what  he  had  once  said 
before  the  Emperor  at  the  Augsburg  Diet  of  1566,  when 
he  said  of  the  Reformed  Elector  Frederick  III.  of  the 
Palatinate  :  "  Fritz,  thou  art  better  than  all  of  us." 
Judging  from  his  treatment  of  Peucer,  he  had  changed 
his  mind  since  then,  and  did  not  think  the  Calvinists 
were  better  than  himself.  Landgrave  William  of  Hesse 
also  interceded  for  Peucer,  that  he  should  be  set  free ; 
but  in  vain.  In  fact  these  intercessions  of  princes  only 
made  Peucer's  lot  the  harder ;  for  Augustus  thought  he 
had  complained  to  these  princes,  and  therefore  they  had 
interceded  for  him.  Finally,  Peucer's  great  inquisi- 
tress,  the  Electress  of  Saxony,  died.  Before  her  death, 
she  passed  through  Leipsic,  on  her  way  to  the  baths  of 
Schwalbach.  As  she  travelled  through  the  town,  the 
keeper  of  the  Pleissenberg,  where  Peucer  was  impris- 
oned, asked  his  medical  opinion  about  the  effect  of  the 
baths  in  her  case.  He  disapproved  of  tlie  use  of  the 
baths  at  Schwalbach,    saying  that  those   who  urged  her 


336         THE   REFORMED   CHURCH   OF   GERMANY. 

to  go  there,  sent  her  there  to  die.  Facts  proved  that  he 
was  right.  Had  she  accepted  the  service  of  the  fore- 
most physician  in  her  land,  she  might  have  had  better 
treatment.  On  the  night  of  her  death,  Peucer  had  a 
wonderful  dream.  He  dreamt  that  the  whole  court 
passed  before  him  in  a  magnificent  funeral  procession, 
and  that  he  himself  ran  to  it.  But  suddenly  the  bell- 
rope  broke,  and  he  awoke,  with  the  words  :  "  The  rope 
is  in  two,  and  we  are  free."  His  dream  seemed  like  a 
prophecy  of  his  freedom.  But  he  remained  in  prison 
for  several  months  after.  The  Elector  of  Saxony,  how- 
ever, married,  three  months  after  the  death  of  his  wife, 
one  of  the  Anhalt  princesses.  These  Anhalt  princes 
had  been  Melancthonian,  and  opposed  the  high  Luther- 
ans. 

Peucer  was  finally  set  free  through  the  influence  of 
the  new  Electress.  The  high  Lutherans  were  very 
angry,  when  they  heard  that  he  was  free  again,  after  his 
twelve  years'  imprisonment.  Augustus,  when  he  first 
imprisoned  Peucer,  had  had  a  medal  struck  off,  which 
represented  the  Elector,  with  a  sword  in  one  hand  and 
balances  in  the  other ;  one  scale  having  the  child  Jesus 
in  it,  the  other  the  four  Wittenberg  professors,  with  the 
devil  among  them.  Now  when  he  released  Peucer,  the 
high  Lutherans  struck  off  a  medal  against  the  Elector. 
On  this  medal  the  Electoral  pair  were  placed  as  Adam 
and  Eve  in  the  garden  of  Eden,  at  the  time  when   the 


PEUCER   SET   AT   LIBERTY.  337 

woman  reaches  out  the  apple  to  the  man.  On  the  medal 
was  the  inscription  :  "  At  Eve's  advice  Adam  trans- 
gressed God's  law."  They  thus  laid  the  blame  of  the 
release  of  Peucer  on  the  Elector's  wife,  who,  like  Eve, 
had  led  him  into  temptation.  The  Elector  did  not  live 
long  after  his  marriage.  On  the  day  of  the  Elector's 
death,  Peucer  at  last  appeared,  for  the  first  time  in  pub- 
lic worship,  at  Zerbst  in  Anhalt.  His  hair  had  grown 
long  during  his  imprisonment.  He  performed  the  ser- 
vices amid  a  flood  of  tears,  as  he  thanked  God  that  now 
he  was  at  the  end  of  his  troubles ;  and  that  through 
them  all,  his  belief  in  God  and  the  truth  had  not  been 
shaken.  After  that,  he  lived  in  Anhalt,  where  he  was 
court  physician.  But  he  travelled  through  the  Palat- 
inate and  Hesse,  as  his  services  were  much  in  demand 
among  the  noble  families  of  Germany.  This  was  the 
first  persecution  of  the  Crypto-Calvinists  in  Saxony. 
It  was  the  only  illustration  of  the  use  of  the  rack  and  tor- 
ture in  Germany  on  the  Protestants.  Sad  indeed,  that 
they  were  used  by  Protestants  on  Protestants. 

But  although  Calvinism  was  thus  persecuted  and 
driven  out  of  Saxony,  it  again  lifted  up  its  head.  The 
successor  of  the  very  Elector  who  so  severely  persecuted 
the  Calvinists,  was  friendly  to  them,  and  inclined  in 
their  direction.  Augustus  was  succeeded  by  his  sou. 
Elector  Christian  I.  It  had  been  prophesied  by  Cruci- 
ger  at  his  trial,  that  Calvinism  would  rise  again.     His 


338         THE   REFORMED   CHURCH   OF   GERMANY. 

prophecy  came  true,  although  not  quite  so  quickly  as  he 
said.  Elector  Christian  was  the  brother-in-law  of  Prince 
Casimir  of  the  Palatinate.  He  was  Casimir's  closest 
friend.  Casimir,  in  his  notes,  calls  him  "  ray  Christian." 
Through  Casimir  he  was  influenced  to  be  friendly  to  the 
Reformed,  and  also  to  be  opposed  to  the  high  Lutheran 
Formula  of  Concord.  So,  when  he  ascended  the  throne 
of  Saxony,  there  came  a  reaction  against  the  Formula  of 
Concord.  His  chancellor,  Crell,  who  had  travelled  ex- 
tensively, and  had  met  Reformed  theologians  in  his 
travels,  also  was  Melancthonian.  When  he  assumed 
control,  many  Melancthonian  ministers  were  found  in 
Saxony.  At  their  head  was  Salmuth,  the  court  preacher. 
An  edict  was  issued  in  1588,  forbidding  the  ministers  to 
abuse  the  Calvinists  in  their  preaching.  Selnecker,  who 
would  not  obey,  was  dismissed  from  his  superintendency 
at  Leipsic,  and  a  Crypto-Calvinist,  Harder,  was  placed 
in  his  stead  in  the  Nicolai  church  at  Leipsic.  Morus 
and  other  Lutheran  ministers  were  dismissed,  because 
they  had  called  Crell  "a  masked  Calvinist.^'  Crell  an- 
swered that  he  had  never  read  a  line  of  Calvin,  but  that 
he  was  a  follower  of  Melancthon.  The  places  left  va- 
cant by  these  dismissals,  were  filled  by  Melancthonians. 
Court  preacher  Salmuth  was  Crell's  great  assistant  in  the 
work  of  driving  out  high  Lutheranism.  Salmuth,  at  the 
Elector's  expense,  published  a  Lutheran  Bible  with  Me- 
lancthonian notes,  in  which  he  argued  against  ubiquity. 


ABROGATION   OF    EXORCISM.  339 

This  so-called  Crell  Bible,  however,  only  reached  as  far 
as  the  second  book  of  Chronicles,  when  the  work  was  in- 
terrupted by  the  downfall  of  Crell.  Subscription  to  the 
Formula  of  Concord  was  no  longer  required  of  the  min- 
isters. Some  Lutheran  customs,  as  exorcism  and  can- 
dles, were  dispensed  with.  The  putting  away  of  exor- 
cism produced  the  greatest  stir  among  the  people.  Con- 
gregations do  not  notice  doctrinal  changes  as  much  as 
changes  in  cultus  and  customs.  This  abrogation  of  ex- 
orcism caused  a  great  storm.  The  great  mass  of  the 
people  still  clung  to  this  Catholic  superstition,  and  be- 
lieved that  without  exorcism,  or  blowing  away  of  the 
devil  at  baptism,  baptism  was  useless.  Elector  Christ- 
ian had  his  daughter  Dorothea  baptized  without  the  use 
of  exorcism,  to  the  great  grief  of  his  wife,  who  was  a 
strong  Lutheran.  Many  people  left  their  children  un- 
baptized,  rather  than  have  them  baptized  without  exor- 
cism. The  disuse  of  the  rite  sometimes  led  to  violence. 
In  Dresden  a  butcher  with  a  hatchet  followed  a  god- 
father, who  carried  his  child  into  the  church,  and  threat- 
ened to  split  open  the  minister's  head,  if  he  did  not  ex- 
orcise the  child.  This  so  frightened  the  minister,  that 
in  spite  of  the  Elector's  orders  to  the  contrary,  he  used 
exorcism.  In  Zeitz  ministers  had  to  seek  safety  in  flight 
from  an  angry  mob,  because  they  would  not  exorcise 
the  children.  At  one  place,  as  the  Elector  came  to  it, 
the  superintendent  and  the  ministers  fell  at  his  feet  and 


340         THE   REFORMED   CHURCH   OF   GERMANY. 

begged  to  be  spared  the  necessity  of  doing  away  with 
this  rite.  At  another  place  the  people  shouted  after  the 
minister,  who  did  not  use  exorcism  :  "  The  naughty 
priest  has  not  expelled  the  devil."  Through  the  influ- 
ence of  Crell  and  prince  Casimir,  Elector  Christian  was 
led  to  send  his  troops  to  the  aid  of  the  persecuted  Re- 
formed Huguenots  of  France. 

But  Elector  Christian  I.  died  in  1591.  At  his  death 
the  high  Lutheran  party  rose  in  power  again,  after  five 
years  of  submission  to  the  Melancthonians.  The  guar- 
dians of  the  new  Elector  were  the  Dukes  of  Saxe- Weimar 
and  of  Sax e-Alten berg,  the  grandsons  of  the  late  Duke 
John  Frederick  of  Saxony  (who  had  been  the  standard- 
bearer  of  the  high  Lutherans).  These  guardians  ruled 
the  court  in  the  interest  of  high  Lutheranism.  The 
Electress,  too,  was  a  strong  Lutheran.  So  the  high  Lu- 
theran party  again  assumed  power.  This  showed  itself 
at  once.  On  the  day  of  the  funeral  of  the  Elector,  Crell 
and  the  ministers  devoted  to  Melancthonianism,  were 
arrested.  The  Melancthonian  court-preacher  was,  how- 
ever, allowed  to  preach  the  funeral  sermon  over  the  dead 
Elector.  Several  charges  were  brought  against  Crell ; 
that  he  had  seduced  the  Elector  to  Calvinism,  mis- 
guided the  affairs  in  the  French  war,  and  had  acted 
traitorously  to  the  Emperor.  Crell  was  imprisoned  in 
the  castle  of  Konigstein,  along  the  Elbe.  Gunderman, 
the  Leipsic  preacher,  was  arrested  and  imprisoned  in  the 


PERSECUTION   OF   CALVINISTS.  341 

Pleissenberg.  Only  great  necessity  led  him  to  sign  a 
high  Lutheran  confession,  which  he  afterwards  repudiat- 
ed. It,  however,  helped  him  nothing,  for  his  wife  com- 
mitted suicide,  and  he  became  insane  through  his  trouble. 
The  hatred  of  the  people  against  the  Calvinists  was 
intense.  It  extended  even  to  burials.  When  Jacob 
Lossius  of  Piacenza,  the  Reformed  court-violinist,  died, 
they  wanted  to  deny  him  an  honorable  burial,  because 
he  happened  to  be  a  Calvinist,  and  had  died  without 
calling  in  a  Lutheran  minister,  that  he  might  make  dy- 
ing confession  to  him.  The  unfortunate  body  was  car- 
ried out  by  four  day  laborers  to  the  criminals^  graveyard. 
But  the  frenzied  people  were  not  satisfied.  A  number 
of  butcher  and  smith  boys  attacked  the  bearers,  broke 
open  the  coffin,  and  vented  on  the  dead  body  their  hatred 
against  Calvinism.  In  Leipsic  matters  came  to  a  still 
worse  issue.  Some  Swiss  gave  a  banquet  on  the  four- 
teenth of  May,  1593,  in  honor  of  their  countryman, 
Professor  Huber  of  Wittenberg.  At  the  table  a  dispute 
arose,  which  finally  resulted  in  blows  ;  when  a  Lutheran 
professor  made  a  threat  that  he  would  thrust  a  knife 
through  Ruber's  body.  Huber  left  the  banquet  and 
complained  to  the  city  council,  but  received  no  answer 
from  them.  The  matter  soon  became  common  talk  in 
Leipsic.  Some  days  later  handbills  were  scattered 
around  in  the  market-place  and  university,  saying  : 
"Whoever  has  a  true  Lutheran  heart,  let  him  come  to 


342        THE   REFORMED   CHURCH   OF   GERMANY. 

the  market  this  eveniug  at  eight  o'clock,  and  help  storrn 
the  house  of  the  Calvinist  Weinhausen."  The  people 
assembled  on  the  evening  of  the  nineteenth  of  May  be- 
fore his  house  in  a  very  disorderly  way.  This  they  kept 
up  until  Sunday  morning.  Just  as  the  bells  began  ring- 
ing for  church,  the  plundering  began.  A  beautiful  pic- 
ture, by  Durer,  of  the  passion  of  Christ,  belonging  to  the 
owner  of  the  house,  together  with  many  tools,  was  de- 
stroyed ;  and  many  other  things  were  carried  away  as 
booty.  With  the  stolen  pans  and  kettles,  a  serenade  was 
performed  before  the  doors  of  the  other  Calvinists. 
Thus  the  Sabbath  was  kept  or  rather  profaned  by  the 
angry  people.  The  city  council  asked  the  help  of  the 
leading  citizens  to  put  down  this  mob,  but  they  replied 
that  they  did  not  want  to  help  any  Calvinist.  Then 
all  was  quiet  for  three  days.  During  that  time  a  list  of 
the  Calvinists  was  made  up  for  proscription.  All  of  the 
proscribed  were  ordered  to  leave  the  city  by  evening. 
But  the  Elector  sent  his  administrator  to  Leipsic  and  ar- 
rested some  of  the  ringleaders,  and  restored  the  Reformed 
exiles. 

Still  sadder  was  the  case  of  Crell,  the  prime  minis- 
ter of  Elector  Christian  I.  He  was  charged  with  lead- 
ing the  Elector  over  to  Calvinism  ;  and  he  was  also 
charged  with  being  a  traitor  to  the  Emperor,  by  having 
led  the  Elector  to  join  the  French  under  Henry  IV., 
against  Austria.     Crell  claimed   that  he  did   it  at  the 


DEATH    OF   CRELL.  348 

command  of  the  dead  Elector.  But  he  was  imprisoned 
for  ten  years  in  the  castle  of  Konigstein.  Then  he  was 
brought  to  Dresden,  to  be  prepared  for  death.  One  of 
the  city  pastors,  Nicolas  Blume,  was  ordered  to  prepare 
Crell  for  death.  He  began  doing  so  by  making  charges 
against  the  Calvinists.  But  Crell  bade  him  cease  such 
controversy,  and  strengthen  him  for  death.  The  min- 
ister did  not  give  up,  so  Crell  returned  no  replies  to 
him.  Finally,  when  the  day  appointed  for  his  execu- 
tion arrived,  Crell  was  so  sick  that  he  had  to  be  carried 
out  on  a  chair,  and  brought  before  the  court  in  his  sleep- 
ing gown.  But  he  was  not  allowed  any  justification. 
He  was  ordered  to  the  scaffold,  which  was  erected  in  the 
Jewish  quarter  at  the  New  Market.  There  Crell  prayed  : 
"  Father,  who  hast  created  me ;  Jesus  Christ,  who  hast 
redeemed  me  ;  Holy  Spirit,  who  hast  sanctified  me — I 
deliver  to  thee  what  thou  gavest  to  me  in  this  life,  that 
thou  mayest  again  receive  it."  As  his  head  fell,  the 
executioner  called  out  to  the  crowd  around  :  "This  was 
a  Calvinistic  stroke."  Thus  died  Crell  a  martyr  for  his 
Crypto-Calvinistic  faith.* 

Thus  ended  Calvinism,  or  rather  the  drift  toward 
Calvinism,  in  Saxony.  After  this,  a  Calvinist  was  more 
hated  in  Saxony  than  a  Jew  or  a  Mohammedan.  This 
persecution   drove   Calvinism    out   of  Saxony ;    but   it 

*The  sword,  with  which  he  was  beheaded,  is  in  the  histori- 
cal museum  at  Dresden,  and  has  on  it  the  inscription  "Cave 
Calviniane"— **  Beware,  Calvinist." 


344         THE   REFORMED   CHURCH   OF   GERMANY. 

opened  the  eyes  of  men  in  many  other  parts  of  Ger- 
many to  the  fanaticism  and  bigotry  of  the  high  Luther- 
ans of  that  day.  Liberal  minded  Christians  could  not 
agree  to  such  persecution.  The  result  was  that  many 
of  them  went  over  to  the  Reformed  faith.  The  low 
Lutherans  or  Melancthonians  were  frightened  by  all 
this.  They  saw  that  there  could  be  a  Protestant  inqui- 
sition as  well  as  a  Catholic  one.  The  result  was  a  re- 
action against  high  Lutheranism,  and  a  crop  of  Re- 
formed conversions  among  the  princes  of  Germany. 


CHAPTER  IV.— SECTION  11. 

Introduction  of  the  Eeformed  Faith  into  Anhalt  and 
Lippe. 

The  duchy  of  Anhalt  was  situated  southwest  of 
Berlin,  on  the  northwestern  borders  of  Saxony.  It  had 
become  Protestant  in  the  early  days  of  the  reformation. 
Duke  George  of  Anhalt  had  been  a  famous  lay  preacher. 
But  this  Lutheran  duchy  became  Reformed  through  its 
opposition  to  the  Formula  of  Concord  and  high  Luth- 
eranism.  When  the  Reformed  faith  was  introduced 
into  Anhalt,  the  duchy  had  been  divided  into  four 
parts  —  Bernberg,  Dessau,  Kotha  and  Zerbst.  But 
Duke  John  George  of  Anhalt-Dessau  acted  as  adminis- 
trator for  his  younger  brothers ;  and  it  was  under  his 
administration  that  the  Reformed  faith  was  introduced 
in  1597. 

Anhalt  had  always  been  affected  by  neighboring 
Saxony.  It  was  through  Luther's  preaching  at  Wit- 
tenberg that  Anhalt  became  Protestant.  She  followed 
Luther's  teaching  at  Wittenberg  until  he  died  ;  and  then 
she  became  a  devoted  follower  of  Melancthon,  who  took 
Luther's  place  at  Wittenberg.  When  the  Formula  of 
23 


346         THE   REFORMED   CHURCH   OF   GERMANY. 

Concord  appeared,  Anhalt  for  the  first  time  refused  to 
follow  Saxony,  for  she  clung  to  Melancthonianism.    Joa- 
chim Ernest,  the  father  of  the  dukes  of  Anhalt,  in  1578 
called  his  ministers   together  at  Dessau,  who   declared 
against  the  Formula  of  Concord.      Repeated  efforts  of 
Andrea  and  the    neighboring    Electors   of   Saxony  and 
Brandenberg  failed  to  make  any  impression  on  Anhalt. 
She  remained  opposed  to  the  Formula  of  Concord.  An- 
other reason  that  led  to  the  introduction  of  the  Reformed 
faith  into  Anhalt,   was   exorcism,   or  blowing  away  of 
the  devil  at  baptism,  a  papal    custom    which  was  prac- 
tised by  many  of  the  high  Lutherans  of  that  day.     This 
rite  was  the  immediate  cause  of  the  conversion  of  An- 
halt to  the  Reformed  faith.      Amling,  the  superintend- 
ent of  Anhalt,  pastor  of  St.   Nicolas  church  at  Zerbst, 
was  a  Melancthonian.     But,    during    the  prevalence  of 
the  plague,    which   raged  at  intervals   from    1566  till 
1582  (when  he  heard  pious  mothers  lamenting  over  dead 
unbaptized  children,  from  whom  they  thought  the  devil 
had  not  been  driven  out  before  they  died),  he   became 
disgusted  with  the  rite.     He  also  frequently  found  that 
unbaptized   children    were  not  allowed  to  be  buried  in 
consecrated  graveyards,  because  the  devil  had  not  been 
blown  out  of  them  by  exorcism.     He,  therefore,  was  led 
to  desire  a  form  of  baptism   that  would   exclude    exor- 
cism.    In  this  he  was  supported  by  Duke  John  George 
aud  later  by  Peucer,  who,   after  his  release  from  prison 


ANHALT    BECOMES    REFORMED.  347 

at  Leipsic,  came  to  Auhalt  as  court  physician.  This 
abrogation  of  exorcism  caused  a  great  stir  among  the 
people,  who  are  more  apt  to  cling  to  customs  than  to 
doctrine.  Some  of  the  strict  Lutheran  ministers  were 
dismissed  ;  among  them,  John  Arndt,  the  author  of 
''True  Christianity,''  who  was  displaced  in  1590,  because 
he  said  the  putting  away  of  exorcism  was  Calvinistic, 
and  he  would  not  give  up  exorcism.  He  went  to  the 
St.  Martin's  church,  at  Brunswick,  where  he  wrote  his 
famous  book.  This  simplification  of  baptism  led  to 
a  similar  change  in  the  Lord's  supper,  which  made  that 
rite  Reformed. 

Another  circumstance  occurred,  which  led  Anhalt 
into  the  Reformed  Church.  The  Anhalt  princes  mar- 
ried Reforjiied  princesses.  John  George  married  the 
daughter  of  Prince  Casimir  of  the  Palatinate,  and  Duke 
Christian  of  Anhalt  Bernberg  married  one  of  the  Count- 
esses of  Bentheim.  Duke  Christian  became  governor 
of  the  Upper  Palatinate  in  1595.  He  thus  entered  the 
employment  of  a  Reformed  government.  Elector  Fred- 
erick V.  calls  him  "  my  father."  He  became  the 
great  warrior  —  the  great  general  of  the  Reformed 
Church  —  the  diplomat.  As  early  as  1596,  Duke 
Christian  with  twelve  others  celebrated  the  Lord's  sup- 
per, after  the  Reformed  mode,  in  his  palace  in  the  Pa- 
latinate. And  in  1597,  a  church  order  was  promul- 
gated through  Anhalt,  making  the  churches  Reformed. 


348         THE    REFORMED   CHUECH    OF   GERMANY. 

It  ordered  that  the  stone  altars  in  the  churches  should 
be  set  aside,  and  ordinary  communion  tables  put  in 
their  place.  At  communion  seasons,  but  not  at  other 
times,  this  table  was  covered  with  a  cloth.  Broken 
bread  was  introduced,  instead  of  wafers.  Instead  of 
the  gold  cup  and  the  broad  chalice,  a  wooden  cup  was 
used.  The  Lutheran  custom  of  holding  the  cloth  under 
the  elements,  lest  any  of  them  should  fall  to  the  ground, 
was  put  away.  The  prayer  spoken  over  the  elements,  the 
singing  of  the  words  of  institution  in  Latin  at  the  Lord's 
supper,  the  making  of  the  sign  of  the  cross  at  the  bene- 
diction, were  all  dispensed  with.  The  communicants  re- 
ceived the  Lord's  supper  standing,  instead  of  kneeling. 
Other  things,  as  pictures,  altars,  private  confessional,  and 
private  communion,  were  dispensed  with.  The  priestly 
robes  with  hoods,  chasubles  and  surplices  were  forbidden. 
The  ministers  were  ordered  not  to  turn  their  back  to 
the  congregation  while  praying,  as  if  acting  as  interces- 
sors for  the  congregation,  but  they  were  to  face  the  con- 
gregation in  prayer.  Baptism  was  performed,  not  from 
a  font,  but  from  a  basin.* 

These  changes,  of  course,  made  a  great  stir,  outside 
and  inside  of  Anhalt.  The  deputies  or  civil  authorities 
of  Anhalt  opposed  this  change  of  faith  ;  while  all  around 
Anhalt,  from  Saxony  and   Brandenberg,  the  opposition 

*Zahn,  das  Gute  Recht  des  Reformirten  Bekenntnisses  in 
Anhalt,  page  21. 


OPPOSITION    IN    A  Nil  ALT.  349 

became  very  great.  Indeed,  the  neighboring  princes  of 
Saxony  became  so  bitter  that  they  threatened  to  with- 
draw their  friendship  and  commerce  from  Anhalt,  if 
she  did  not  give  up  her  Reformed  heresies.  But  An- 
halt answered  that  the  Lord  would  take  care  of  her ; 
and  so  he  did.  The  land  bloomed  and  flourished,  in 
spite  of  it  all. 

In  this  introduction  of  the  Reformed  faith,  Duke 
John  George  was  the  leader,  but  he  was  supported  in  it 
by  his  brothers.  Among  the  people  there  was  a  good 
deal  of  opposition  to  these  cha«iges  from  the  Lutheran 
faith.  Many  of  them  went  to  neighboring  Saxony  to 
worship.  At  Worlitz,  the  women,  led  by  a  noble  lady, 
went  to  the  church,  had  a  hole  made  in  the  altar,  and 
filled  it  with  powder.  They  caused  it  to  be  known  that 
when  the  soldiers  entered  the  church,  to  take  away  the 
altar,  so  as  to  place  a  Reformed  communion  table  there, 
they  would  blow  up  themselves  and  the  altar  into  the 
air.  The  women  came  off  victorious,  of  course  ;  and  the 
soldiers  of  the  Duke  went  away  without  introducing  the 
Reformed  faith  into  that  church.  The  princes  of  An- 
halt filled  their  pulpits  with  Reformed  ministers  from 
the  Palatinate,  or  with  Crypto-Calvinists  fleeing  from 
Saxony.  These  new  Reformed  pastors  had  some  strange 
experiences.  Sometimes  a  wheel  or  a  gallows  was 
painted  on  their  church  doors  ;  or  mocking  songs  were 
sung  about  them. 


350         THE    REFORMED    CHURCH    OF   GERMANY. 

In  1599,  a  church  order  was  issued  which  com- 
pleted the  introduction  of  the  Reformed  faith  into  the 
land.  The  Heidelberg  Catechism  was  introduced  in- 
stead of  Luther's.  The  Anhalt  Confession  of  1579, 
which  was  merely  a  deliverance  against  the  Formula  of 
Concord,  was  not  the  official  church  creed  ;  but  the 
Heidelberg  Catechism  became  the  symbol  of  Anhalt. 
Their  Calvinism  was  at  first  tinged  with  Melancthoni- 
anism.  The  Church  was  not  considered,  by  the  Hol- 
landers, quite  orthodox  enough  to  be  invited  to  the 
synod  of  Dort.  But  gradually  stricter  Calvinism  was  in- 
troduced. Wendelin,  the  rector  of  Zerbst  gymnasium, 
brought  in  the  doctrine  of  predestination.  Thus  An- 
halt became  the  banner  nation  of  the  Reformed  faith  in 
Eastern  Germany,  by  leading  the  way  for  its  introduc- 
tion into  the  east  as  well  as  in  the  west.  What  had  been 
attempted  in  Saxony  and  failed,  now  succeeded  in  An- 
halt. Through  her  influence,  other  lands  in  Eastern 
Germany  became  Reformed,  as  Brandenberg  and  Lieg- 
nitz.  Although  Anhalt  was  only  a  small  duchy,  yet 
her  influence  was  felt  far  and  wide.  Duke  Christian  of 
Anhalt  Bernberg  became  one  of  the  leaders  of  his  age. 
The  mantle  of  Prince  Casimir  of  the  Palatinate  seemed 
to  have  fallen  on  him.  He  was  one  of  the  great  Prot- 
estant generals,  and  a  leader  of  the  Reformed  troops  at 
the  beginning  of  the  Thirty  Years'  War.  Anhalt 
Zerbst  finally  went  back  to  Lutheranism  again,  because 


LIPPE   BECOMES   REFORMED.  361 

its  prince  was  raised  by  a  Lutheran  mother.     But  Des- 
sau and  Bernberg  remained  Reformed. 

The  County  of  Lippe. 

Lippe  is  a  county  situated  north  of  Hesse.  It  re- 
ceived the  Reformed  doctrine  a  little  later  than  Anhalt. 
Lippe  had  been  Lutheran.  But  Count  Simon  VI., 
left  an  orphan  at  nine  years  of  age,  happened  to  have 
for  his  teacher  a  Melancthonian,  Thodenus.  He  was 
also  influenced  by  his  governor,  Christopher  of  Donop, 
who  was  a  Melancthonian.  He  studied  at  Strasburg 
and  was  influenced  toward  the  Reformed  faith  by  John 
Sturm.  He  married  into  the  family  of  Hesse,  which 
made  him  all  the  more  liberal  in  his  Lutheranism.  All 
these  influences  inclined  him  to  the  Reformed  faith.  In 
1600,  he  began  to  introduce  the  Reformed  doctrine  and 
customs  into  his  land.  He  invited  Reformed  ministers 
to  his  churches,  and  made  Dreckmeier  General  Superin- 
tendent. Altars,  candles,  and  priestly  robes  were  all 
put  away  from  the  churches.  At  first  every  congrega- 
tion objected  to  these  changes.  But  he  persevered 
firmly  and  quietly  ;  and  gained  the  victory.  Lemgo 
alone  refused  all  efforts  to  make  it  Reformed,  until  in 
1610  it  was  allowed  to  remain  Lutheran.  Simon  VI. 
founded  a  school  at  Detmold,  in  order  to  train  up  stud- 
ents in  the  Reformed  faith.  Lippe  has  since  become  a 
stronghold  of  the  Reformed  faith  in  Germany. 


CHAPTER  ,IV.— SECTION  III. 

Introduction  of  the  Reformed  Faith  into  Hesse. 

Meanwhile  a  silent  preparation  was  taking  place  in 
Hesse,  preparing  it  for  transition  to  the  Reformed  Church. 
Hesse  never  forgot  Zwingli's  influence  at  the  Marburg 
Conference  in  1529.  The  Wittenberg  Concord,  arranged 
by  Bucer,  was  the  true  expressson  of  Hessian  theology. 
After  his  death  she  became  Melancthonian.  Indeed 
some  of  her  ministers  had  been  Reformed,  as  Hyperius. 
The  Hessian  Church,  at  the  beginning  of  the  seventeenth 
century,  was  a  curious  combination.  It  followed  Bucer 
in  doctrine,  Melancthon  in  cultus,  Calvin  in  church  gov- 
ernment. 

Landgrave  Philip  died  in  1567.  He  was  buried  in 
the  choir  of  St.  Martin's  church  at  Cassel  ;  where  a  fine 
monument,  reaching  to  the  vault  of  the  choir,  made  of 
black  marble  with  white  reliefs  and  profuse  gilding,  rep- 
resenting Christ's  resurrection,  marks  his  tomb.  Land- 
grave Philip  was  the  most  daring  and  farsighted  of  the 
German  princes  of  his  day.  He  saw  what  no  other  Ger- 
man prince  of  his  day  saw,  —  that  a  union  of  the  Prot- 
estant states  of  Germany  was  a  necessity  to  the  success 


DIVISION   OF   HESSE.  353 

of  their  cause.  After  his  death,  Hesse  began  to  decline 
in  influence.  His  sons  did  not  inherit  his  sagacity.  And 
he  weakened  his  land  by  dividing  it  among  his  four  sons. 
Still  he  stipulated  that,  while  each  reigned  in  his  own 
land,  yet  they  must  act  in  concert  on  all  political  and 
religious  questions.  William,  his  oldest  son,  received 
Lower  Hesse  or  Hesse  Cassel,  which  contained  about 
half  of  the  whole  land.  William  thus,  because  of  his 
age,  and  also  because  of  the  size  of  his  territory,  was  the 
leader  of  the  brothers.  Lewis  received  Upper  Hesse 
around  Marburg.  This  division  of  the  land  will  explain 
much  of  the  future  church  history  of  Hesse. 

A  general  synod  of  all  the  churches  in  Hesse  was 
held  yearly,  the  first  being  held  at  Cassel  in  1568.* 
But  a  difference  in  religious  views  very  soon  began  to 
show  itself  between  William  of  Lower  Hesse  and  Lewis 
of  Upper  Hesse.  William  remained  in  his  father's  faith, 
a  Melancthonian  ;  while  Lewis  became  a  high  Lutheran. 
Lewis  was  led  toward  high  Lutheranism  by  his  marriage 
with  a  Wurtemberg  princess,  who  swayed  him  in  that 
direction.  This  difference  between  the  brothers  first  ap- 
peared in  the  publication  of  a  church  order  in  1572.  It 
was  printed  at  Marburg,  under  the  direction  of  Lewis. 
William  charged  Lewis  with  making  some  unauthorized 
changes  in  it,  in  the  interest  of  high  Lutheranism  ;  as  for 

*This  synod,  when  held  at  Cassel,  met  in  the  court  of  justice, 
probably  in  the  hall  of  the  sessions  of  the  court.  At  Marburg 
it  met  in  some  room  in  the  north  wing  of  the  castle,  near  the 
saloon. 


354         THE   REFORMED   CHURCH    OF   GERMANY. 

instance,  when  it  said  that  the  words  of  institution  at  the 
Lord's  supper  were  to  be  ^sung'  instead  of  ^read/  The 
next  difference  that  appeared,  was  in  1575,  about  the  use 
of  Hyperius'  catechism,  which  was  Calvinistic.  This 
catechism  had  been  used  in  the  higher  classes  of  schools, 
but  had  now  been  put  out  of  the  gymnasium  at  Mar- 
burg by  Lewis,  so  as  to  get  Luther's  catechism  in.  Then 
came  the  election  of  Hunnius  as  professor  at  Marburg, 
which  capped  the  climax.  Hunnius  was  a  high  Luther- 
an, and  was  brought  to  Marburg  through  the  interven- 
tion of  the  wife  of  Lewis.  He  came  into  Hesse  for  the 
express  purpose  of  making  that  land  high  Lutheran. 
Of  course.  Landgrave  William  and  Hunnius  soon  came 
to  daggers'  points.  The  next  step  in  this  religious  his- 
tory of  Hesse  was  the  publication  of  the  Formula  of 
Concord.  In  1577,  the  Electors  of  Saxony  and  Bran- 
denberg  wrote  to  William,  asking  him  to  sign  the  For- 
mula and  adopt  it,  thus  introducing  it  into  his  land. 
But  William  was  very  much  displeased  with  the  For- 
mula. He  saw  that  its  aim  was,  under  the  guise  of  con- 
cord, to  drive  out  all  who  were  not  high  Lutherans. 
So  he  wrote  to  the  Elector  of  Saxony  a  reply,  consisting 
of  twelve  paradoxes  which  criticized  the  Formula  of 
Concord.  Andrea,  the  author  of  the  Formula,  when  he 
heard  this,  became  very  angry  that  a  temporal  prince 
should  presume  to  criticize  such  a  work  of  theologians 
— his  master-piece.     He  wrote  a  very  severe  answer  to 


CONFERENCE    AT   TREYSA.  355 

William,  charging  him  with  trying,  by  the  aid  of  the 
devil,  to  destroy  the  influence  of  the  Formula  of 
Concord.  This  of  course  angered  William  the  more,  and 
made  him  the  determined  foe  of  the  Formula  of  Concord. 
But  while  William  opposed  the  Formula,  Lewis  of 
Upper  Hesse  was  favorable  to  it.  Such,  however,  was 
the  constitution  of  the  Hessian  government,  that  neither 
could  express  any  approval  of  it  without  the  consent  of 
the  other.  So  a  conference  of  ministers  was  called  at 
Treysa,  in  November,  1577,  to  decide  about  the  Form- 
ula of  Concord.  After  the  opening  address  by  Chan- 
cellor Riedesel,  there  was  a  stormy  session  for  twelve 
days,  from  day  dawn  till  late  in  the  evening  of  each 
day.  The  Lower  Hessian  ministers  objected  to  the  doc- 
trine of  ubiquity,  as  found  in  the  Formula  of  Concord. 
Superintendent  Pistorius  of  Nydda  (who  had  grown 
gray  in  the  service  of  the  Hessian  Church)  declared  the 
subtlety  of  the  Formula  too  high,  and  its  damnation  of 
the  Reformed  too  hard  for  him.  This  Treysa  Conference, 
with  the  exception  of  three  ministers  who  represented 
Upper  Hesse,  remained  true  to  the  Melancthonian  po- 
sition, and  rejected  the  Formula  of  Concord.  When  the 
next  General  Synod  met,  both  parties  took  up  the  sub- 
ject again.  The  Lower  Hessians  were  anxious  to  re- 
tain the  ground  gained  at  Treysa,  the  Upper  Hessians 
aimed  to  undo  the  decision  of  Treysa  against  them.  Af- 
ter a  sharp  debate,  the  synod  affirmed  what  had  been  done 


356         THE   REFORMED   CHURCH    OF   GERMANY. 

by  the  conference  at  Treysa;  thus  officially,  in  the  name 
of  the  Hessian  Church,  rejecting  the  Formula  of  Con- 
cord. William  of  Hesse  and  the  Prince  of  Anhalt 
then  joined  hands  in  their  opposition  to  the  Formula. 
William  said  he  would  rather  thrust  his  hand  into  the 
fire,  than  sign  such  a  confession. 

Thus,  through  these  controversies,  the  breach  be- 
tween Upper  and  Lower  Hesse  widened.  It  finally  .be- 
came so  great  as  to  render  the  holding  of  General  Syn- 
ods impossible.  So  the  thirteenth  General  Synod  of 
1582  was  the  last  synod  held  in  the  sixteenth  century. 
Lower  Hesse  remained  Melancthonian,  and  Upper 
Hesse  became  high  Lutheran.  Finally,  the  wife  of 
Landgrave  Lewis  died.  In  her,  Hunnius  lost  his  chief 
supporter,  and  he  was  finally  dismissed  at  William's  re- 
quest. In  him,  the  Lutherans  of  Upper  Hesse  lost  their 
leader ;  but  the  seed  he  sowed  remained  there  after  him. 

Landgrave  William  died  in  1592,  and  left  his  son 
Maurice  as  his  successor.  Maurice  was  called  the 
Learned,  because  of  his  clear  mind  and  great  learning. 
In  1601  he  founded  a  temperance  society  at  Heidelberg 
for  Reformed  nobles.  He  had  as  teacher  Cruciger,  the 
Crypto-Calvinist,  who  fled  from  Saxony..  Maurice  also 
personally  knew  some  of  the  leaders  of  the  Reformed 
Church,  and  was  in  correspondence  with  others.  He 
thus  became  acquainted  with  the  Reformed  Church. 
When  he  began  to  reign,  the  Hessian  Church  was  half 


HESSE    BECOMES    REFORMED.  357 

Lutheran  and  half  Reformed.  Upper  Hesse  was  Lu- 
theran. Lower  Hesse  was  a  mixture.  In  government 
she  was  Reformed  ;  while  in  doctrine  the  Formula  of 
Concord  had  been  driving  the  Melancthonians  farther 
from  Lutheranism  toward  the  Reformed  faith.  But  still 
her  customs  were  Lutherau.  At  first  Maurice  tried  to 
unite  the  two  faiths,  and  to  unite  Lutheran  customs  with 
Reformed  doctrine  and  government ;  but  he  found  it 
impossible.  With  his  keen,  clear  mind,  he  saw  that 
the  Gordian  knot  must  be  cut.  Hesse  could  not  be  both 
Lutheran  and  Reformed.  The  customs  must  agree  with 
the  doctrine  ;  or  the  doctrine  with  the  customs.  So  the 
I^andgrave,  in  1604,  ordered  three  points  of  reforma- 
tion :  first,  that  polemics  and  strife  must  cease  in  the 
pulpits  of  the  land ;  second,  that  God's  command  against 
pictures  must  be  enforced,  and  the  pictures  must  be  put 
out  of  the  churches ;  third,  that  bread  must  be  used  at 
the  Lord's  supper,  instead  of  wafers.  On  Whitsunday, 
1605,  the  Lord's  supper  was  celebrated  in  the  castle 
church  at  Cassel  after  the  Reformed  mode,  with  the 
breaking  of  bread.  These  reforms  were  introduced  into 
Lower  Hesse  with  little  difficulty.  But  in  Upper  Hesse, 
which  had  gone  over  to  high  Lutheranism,  the  greatest 
difficulty  was  experienced.  Landgrave  Lewis  having 
died,  Marburg  reverted  to  William,  and  Maurice,  his 
successor,  undertook  to  introduce  the  Reformed  faith 
into  this  land.     The  Lutherans  of  Marburg  protested 


358         THE    REFORMED   CHURCH    OF   GERMANY. 

against  it.  But  Maurice  sent  Superintendent  Schonfeld 
to  Marburg,  to  urge  the  introduction  of  these  three 
points  of  reformation  ;  and  then  sent  Schoner  to  assist 
him.  Finally,  Maurice  himself  went  to  Marburg,  and 
on  Sunday,  July  28,  1605,  he  spoke  to  the  professors  and 
students  in  the  aula  of  the  university.  As  he  went  from 
the  aula  to  the  Lutheran  parish  church,  he  was  met  by 
a  deputation  of  citizens,  who  asked  him  to  address  the 
people  about  the  reforms  So  after  service  was  over, 
from  the  steps  at  the  choir  door  of  the  church,  he  ad- 
dressed the  people.  He  aimed  to  impress  on  them  that 
he  was  introducing  no  new  doctrine ;  but  that  he  only 
wanted  by  his  reforms  to  re-introduce  the  doctrine  of 
the  old  Hessian  Church  among  them.  He  then  left  the 
the  city  ;  but  hardly  was  he  gone,  before  the  storm  burst. 
All  sorts  of  rumors  had  been  circulated  through  Mar- 
burg about  the  Reformed.  Rumor  declared  that  all 
fonts  and  altars  would  be  taken  away  from  the  church- 
es; a  new  faith,  a  new  baptism,  new  ten  command- 
ments, a  new  Lord's  supper  would  be  introduced.  On 
Sunday,  the  fourth  of  August,  announcement  was  made 
that  on  the  following  week  days  sermons  would  be 
preached  by  the  Reformed  ministers  on  the  three  points 
of  reformation  ordered  by  Maurice.  On  Monday,  Su- 
perintendent Schonfeld  preached  on  the  use  of  bread, 
instead  of  wafers,  at  the  communion.  The  people  list- 
ened to  him  quietly.     On  Tuesday,  Schoner  intended  to 


RIOT   AT    MARBURG.  359 

preach  against  the  use  of  pictures,  as  forbidden  by  the 
second  commandment.  But  before  the  time  of  service, 
8  A.  M.,  a  report  was  circulated  through  the  town  that 
on  that  day  the  pictures  would  be  taken  out  of  the 
churches,  by  the  Landgrave's  order.  The  people  became 
very  angry  at  this,  and  began  to  assemble  in  large 
crowds  at  the  door  of  the  cnurch.  It  was  a  threatening 
crowd — masons  with  their  pikes,  carpenters  with  their 
rules  and  levels.  Schoner  was  in  the  pulpit,  and  was 
about  to  begin  his  sermon,  when  from  the  crowd  below 
many  voices  shouted  out:  "Shut  up,  you  pope.  Throw 
the  old  rogue  down  with  the  pulpit  and  all."  The  pul- 
pit shook,  as  he  attempted  to  close  the  service.  He 
kneeled  and  prayed.  Then,  at  the  signal  of  the  leader, 
Anton  Harter,  which  was  the  singing  of  the  hymn  : 
*'  Allein  zu  Dir,  Herr  Jesus  Christ,'^  a  rush  was  made 
from  all  sides.  Schoner  had  left  the  pulpit  to  go  to  the 
altar,  to  pronounce  the  benediction.  The  tumult  be- 
came so  great  that  the  mob  became  unmanageable. 
The  peaceable  ones  tried  to  get  out  of  the  church,  and 
the  rioters  tried  to  get  through  the  church,  to  lay  hold 
of  the  Reformed  ministers.  The  wife  of  Goclenius  has- 
tened to  Schoner  and  warned  him  not  to  go  to  the  altar 
steps,  where  they  were  waiting  to  injure  him.  She  led 
him  to  the  baptismal  font,  where  he  wanted  to  baptize 
a  child.  But  he  found  it  impossible  to  baptize  the 
child;  and  was  himself  in   the  greatest  danger.     The 


360         THE    REFORMED    CHURCH    OF   GERMANY. 

crowd  rushed  up  to  him.  Although  some  cried  out 
that  he  should  be  spared,  because  of  his  age ;  yet  they 
struck  him  and  pushed  him  out  of  the  choir  door.  The 
poor  ministers,  like  sheep  for  the  slaughter,  were  gathered 
at  the  professor's  bench  or  gallery,  where  they  supposed 
themselves  safer.  The  rabble,  however,  rushed  on  them 
with  revilings,  tore  the  clothes  off  them,  and  hit  the  caps 
and  hats  from  their  heads.  Those  below  cried  out : 
"Throw  the  rogues  down."  Those  above,  paid  no  atten- 
tion to  them,  but  pushed  the  ministers  through  the  door. 
The  ministers  prayed  for  mercy,  but  found  none.  The 
mob  laid  hold  of  Schonfeld  first,  pushed  him  down  the 
steps  into  the  vestry,  and  dragged  him  between  the  high 
altars.  Those  in  front  struck  him  ;  those  at  his  side 
tripped  him  and  threw  him  down.  When  he  tried  to 
rise,  they  struck  him,  until  weary  and  bleeding,  he  cried 
out:  "O  spare  me,  I  am  now  a  poor  imprisoned  man." 
They  cried  out :  "  Strike  him,  strike  him  dead."  Struck 
by  a  great  blow,  he  cried  out :  "  Lord  Jesus,  receive  my 
spirit  and  forgive  these ;  for  they  know  not  what  they 
do."  They  left  him  half  dead.  But  others  (that  he 
might  not  die  in  the  church  and  thus  pollute  it)  tore 
him  half  dead  from  the  ground,  pushed  him  or  rather 
threw  him  out  of  the  door  of  the  choir,  where  some 
students  caught  him  in  their  mantles  and  gowns,  and 
broke  his  fall.  These  carried  him  into  the  court  of 
justice,  and   thus   preserved   his   life.     The  other  min- 


RIOT   AT   MARBURG.  361 

isters,  who  had  come  to  the  service,  also  had  to  suffer. 
Pfaff,  who  had  lived  a  long  time  in  Marburg,  was 
thrust  out  of  the  back  door  of  the  church,  and  told  that 
the  devil  would  catch  him,  if  he  ever  stepped  in  the 
pulpit.  Cellarius  fared  worse.  Dragged  hither  and 
tliither  in  the  crowd,  he  was  thrust  out  of  the  church 
iiUo  the  church  yard  against  the  walls  of  the  parsonage. 
He  sought  safety  in  the  parsonage.  But  the  wife  of 
superintendent  Leuchter,  wiio  had  just  been  dismissed 
for  his  Lutheranism,  still  lived  in  the  parsonage.  She 
was,  therefore,  in  no  amiable  mood  toward  the  Re- 
formed, and  bluntly  refused  his  entreaties,  saying  to  him  : 
*'  Go  away.  Escape  where  you  can.  You  have  noth- 
ing to  do  here.''  He  was  then  pursued,  through  the 
neighboring  garden  into  the  street,  by  a  butcher  with  a 
hatchet.  Hardly  had  he  escaped  these  dangers,  than  a 
woman  attacked  him  with  a  washing  beetle,  beating  him 
most  unmercifully,  and  pursuing  him  till  he  reached  the 
door  of  the  Barefooted  Monks'  church.  There,  at  her 
loud  cry  that  some  one  would  stop  him,  a  thresher 
sprang  out  with  his  flail.  But  he  was  appeased  by  the 
prayer  of  the  minister  :  ''  O,  I  pray  you  with  God's  will, 
I  am  too  severely  beaten  already,  and  have  done  no 
harm  to  yourself  or  anybody."  Plainstein  and  Kirch- 
ner,  two  other  n)iii isters,  saved  themselves  by  a  bold 
spring  from  the  upper  gallery,  where  the  ministers  sat. 
24 


362         THE   REFORMED   CHURCH    OF   GERMANY. 

Hainstein   escaped,  as   he   was   not  known,  and  as  he 
looked  so  young  that  he  was  taken  for  a  student. 

Finally,  the  rage  of  the  people  died  out.     Then  the 
citizens  locked  the  church  and  went  to  the  city  hall,  to 
deliberate  what  was  next  to  be  done.     For  four  hours 
they  discussed  how  they  might  defend  the  city  against 
the  Landgrave.     It  happened  that  Maurice  had  received 
word  of  the  riot  by  noon  at  Gmunden.     He   hastened 
back,  and  by  midnight  had  entered  his  castle  at  Mar- 
burg, with  seventy  armed  men  of  Kirchwain.     The  next 
morning  he  sent  a  messenger  from    the  castle,  to  sum- 
mon the  citizens  before  him,  that  they  might  ask  pardon 
for  their  excesses.     They  scornfully  answered  that  they 
had  cleaned   their  arms  and  bought   all  the  powder  in 
the  town.     The  Landgrave,  on  hearing  this  insubordi- 
tion,  threateningly  demanded  the  unconditional  disarm- 
ing of  all  the  citizens.     The  citizens  soon  came  to  their 
senses,  as  the  Landgrave  began  ordering  troops  from  all 
directions   to   Marburg.     So   they   submitted ;  and   on 
Thursday  the  city  was  put  under  martial  law,  and  the 
citizens  disarmed.     The  next  day  Landgrave  Maurice, 
leading  the  Reformed  ministers,   went  to  the  church. 
Schonfeld  preached,  although  still  bearing  the  marks  of 
his   injuries.     His   text   was :  "  Love    your   enemies.^' 
He  said  the  other  ministers  were  gladly  willing  to  forget 
their  insults  and  forgive  their  injuries.     After  the  bene- 
diction, Maurice  arose  in  the  church,  and  with  touching 


RESULTS   OF   THE    RIOT  363 

words  reproached  the  citizens  for  what  they  had  done. 
He  closed  his  speech  with  the  words:  "Since  so  great 
an  evil  comes  from  dumb  idols,  and  through  it  men  are 
led  to  attempt  murder;  therefore,  after  the  example  of 
his  holy  king,  to  remedy  scandal,  they  shall  be  put 
away  and  removed  out  of  sight/'  Then,  at  his  com- 
mand, all  the  pictures,  images  and  crucifixes  were  torn 
from  their  places  and  cast  out  of  the  church.  The  ring- 
leaders of  the  riot  were  arrested  or  fled.  The  quarter- 
ing of  the  soldiers  on  the  citizens  soon  proved  a  heavy 
burden  to  them,  so  they  soon  came  to  terms  with  the 
Landgrave.  On  the  13th  of  August,  the  burgomaster 
and  town  council  came  to  the  Landgrave,  to  ask  for  the 
removal  of  the  troops.  The  Landgrave  received  them 
before  his  castle  under  the  open  sky.  As  they  came  be- 
fore him,  they  fell  at  his  feet;  but  the  Landgrave  for- 
bade this  act  of  homage.  Then  it  was  that  Schonfeld 
stepped  forward,  and  in  the  name  of  his  ministerial  col- 
leagues, interceded  for  the  repentant  citizens.  This  un- 
expected act  of  Christian  generosity  quite  won  the  heart 
of  the  Landgrave  for  them.  They  were  forgiven,  and 
the  soldiers  taken  away.  On  the  following  Sunday, 
after  a  sermon  had  been  preached  on  Maurice's  three 
points  of  reformation,  the  Lord's  supper  was  celebrated 
after  the  Reformed  mode,  with  bread  and  not  with 
wafers.  The  court  professors,  part  of  the  students  and 
the  city  council,  partook  of  it ;  but  few  of  the  citizens. 


364         THE    REFORMED    CHURCH    OF    GERMANY. 

Every  Sabbath  crowds  of  men  and  women  were  seen 
going  to  the  neighboring  villages  of  Schrock  and  Bauer- 
bach,  in  the  Electorate  of  Mayence,  to  receive  the  Lord's 
supper  after  the  Lutheran  mode. 

There  was  also  farther  resistance  to  Maurice's  points 
of  reformation  by  the  country  ministers  of  Upper  Hesse. 
Some  of  them  went  so  far  as  to  pray  that  God's  judgment 
might  come  on  him.  They  went  to  his  brother,  the 
Landgrave  of  Hesse-Darmstadt,  and  asked  him  to  inter- 
cede for  them.  But  he  could  not  do  anything,  save  to 
found  the  Lutheran  university  at  Giessen,  near  Marburg, 
in  1607,  to  offset  the  teachings  of  Marburg,  which  now 
became  Reformed. 

The  next  act  of  Maurice  was  to  reorganize  the  Gen- 
eral Synod  of  Hesse,  which,  through  dissensions  with 
the  high  Lutherans,  had  been  abrogated  in  1582.  It 
met  for  the  first  time  in  the  seventeenth  century  at  Cassel, 
in  1607.  The  General  Synod  then  officially  announced 
its  adherence  to  the  Reformed  Church.  It  ordered 
(after  the  Reformed  mode)  the  introdfiction  of  the  sing- 
ing of  Psalms,  of  catechetical  preaching,  and  strict 
church  discipline.  It  allowed  (and  here  it  differs  from 
all  other  Reformed  churches)  the  pericopes  or  Scripture 
lessons  to  be  read  every  Sabbath.  This  was  the  first  use 
of  pericopes  in  the  Reformed  Church  of  Germany.  It 
reveals  the  influence  of  Lutheranism  on  the  Hessian  Re- 
formed Church.     And  even  to    this  century,    for  some 


36e5 


such  causes,  the  Hessian  Church  has  not  been  considered 
a  fully  Reformed  Church,  by  the  Reformed  Churches 
west  of  it.  After  a  few  attempts  at  opposition,  the  Re- 
formed faith  was  thoroughly  introduced  into  Lower 
Hesse.  A  consistory,  with  Schonfeld  as  president,  was 
appointed  in  1610.  The  old  Lutheran  office  of  superin- 
tendent was  absorbed  in  the  consistory.  Hesse  thus  be- 
came a  Reformed  land.  But  there  was  always  a  slight 
tinge  of  Lutheran  influence  in  a  few  of  her  customs,  as 
in  her  liturgy  and  the  use  of  Scripture  lessons,  which 
none  of  the  other  Reformed  Churches  revealed. 


CHAPTER  IV.— SECTION  IV. 

Introduction  of  the  Reformed  Faith  into  Brandenherg. 

The  last  of  the  great  German  princes  to  receive  the 
Reformed  faith  was  the  Elector  of  Brandenberg,  the  an- 
cestor of  the  present  Emperor  of  Germany.  Branden- 
berg  was  afterwards  merged  into  Prussia  and  now  rules 
the  great  empire  of  Germany.  So  that  the  conversion 
of  the  Elector  of  Brandenberg  was  the  most  important 
of  all,  in  its  bearing  on  the  future  history  of  the  Re- 
formed Church  of  Germany.  Before  the  introduction 
of  the  Reformed  faith  into  Brandenberg,  the  people  of 
that  land  were  intensely  Lutheran.  Thus  in  1568,  a 
pastor  at  Frankford  on  the  Oder,  was  tried  as  a  criminal, 
for  spilling  a  few  drops  of  wine  at  the  communion. 
Brandenberg  was  high  Lutheran,  a  strict  adherent  of 
the  Formula  of  Concord.  No  Reformed  people  were 
allowed  to  become  citizens,  and  prominent  persons  were 
put  out  of  office,  if  they  were  suspected  of  Zwinglianism. 
But  still,  in  spite  of  these  laws,  Calvinists  or  Crypto- 
Calvinists  would  get  into  the  land.  Some  Reformed 
people  came  from  Holland  as  early  as  1531.  And  Ger- 
man emigrants  came  from  Strasburg,  bringing  Bucer's 


YOUTH   OF   SIGISMUND.  367 

views  with  thera.     In  Poland,  on  the  east  of  Branden- 
berg,  there  were  many  Reformed,   and    some   of  them 
would  come  over  the  border.     The  first  Prussian  noble 
to  embrace  the  Reformed  faith  was  the  Baron  Von  Dohna, 
who^had  travelled    extensively,  and  thus  been    brought 
into  contact  with  the  Reformed  people.     It  thus  became 
very  hard  to  keep  the  Reformed  out  of  the  land,  especially 
as  they  claimed  to  be  protected  by  the  Augsburg  Con- 
fession.    Finally  Calvinism  reached  the  throne,  as  Elec- 
tor Sigismund  united  with  the  Reformed  Church  in  1613. 
Elector  John  Sigismund  was  born  at  Halle  in  1572, 
where  his  father  was  administrator.     But  he  was  mainly 
raised  at  Berlin  by  his  grandfather,  whose   favorite  he 
was.     He  had  for  his  religious  instructor  Gedicke,  the 
cathedral  preacher  of  Halle.     Gedicke  was  one  of  the 
highest  of  the  high  Lutherans,  going  so  far  as  to  call  the 
Calvinists  "  Mamelukes.'^     But  in  his  overzeal  for  Lu- 
theranism,  he  rather  prejudiced  Sigismund's  mind  against 
it  (as  is  often  the  case  with  independent  minds).     When 
Sigismund  was  twenty-one  years  of  age,  his  grandfather, 
a  fanatical  Lutheran,  made  him  take  a  solemn  oath  that 
he  would  always  remain  a  Lutheran,  and  an  adherent  of 
the  Formula  of  Concord.*     This  oath  was  supposed  to 
be  able  to  prevent  him  from  ever  departing   from   the 
Lutheran  faith.     But  Oaths  are  weak  to  bind  consciences, 

'This  obligation  betook  on  tbe27tb  of  January,  1593,  between 
7  and  8  A.  M.,  in  tbe  cburch  rooms  of  the  Moritzburg  at  Halle, 
in  the  presence  of  Gedicke  and  others. 


368         THE   REFORMED   CHURCH   OF   GERMANY. 

especially  when  the  oath  is  found  to  be  contrary  to  con- 
science. So,  when  he  became  Elector  in  1609,  he  found 
that  the  Reformed  faith  was  every  where  forcing  itself  on 
him.  There  had  been  a  crop  of  conversions  to  the  Re- 
formed faith  from  among  his  own  princely  acquaintances. 
The  princes  of  Anhalt,  Lippe  and  Hesse  had  left  Lu- 
theranism  for  the  Reformed  faith,  through  their  opposi- 
tion to  the  Formula  of  Concord.  One  of  them,  Duke 
John  George  of  Anhalt,  was  his  intimate  friend  and 
neighbor.  And  the  Reformed  faith  suited  his  mild  dis- 
position ;  for  he  had  no  sympathy  with  the  polemics  that 
the  Lutheran  preachers  were  always  hurling  against  the 
Reformed.  He  preferred  the  gospel  to  polemics.  Final- 
ly a  betrothal  of  his  oldest  son  to  a  Palatinate  princess, 
the  daughter  of  Elector  Frederick  IV.  of  the  Palatinate, 
brought  him  in  direct  contact  with  the  Reformed.  He 
himself  went,  in  order  to  be  present  at  his  son's  marriage, 
to  Heidelberg  —  ^  that  synagogue  of  Satan'  in  the  eyes 
of  the  high  Lutherans.  He  thus  learned  to  admire  and 
to  become  attached  to  the  Reformed  Church.  In  1613 
he  said  he  had  been  attached  to  their  faith  for  more  than 
eight  years.  He  waited  several  years  after  becoming 
Elector,  and  then,  as  he  said,  to  ease  his  conscience,  he 
joined  the  Reformed  Church. 

He  has  been  charged  with  becoming  Reformed  for 
political  reasons.  The  duchy  of  Julich-Cleve-Berg  in 
western   Germany    was    in   dispute  between  the  Duke 


i5 


if)  IJJ 


a:   2 
O   ^ 


7   ^ 


CAUSE   OF   SIGISMUND's   CONVERSION.  369 

of  Pfalz- Neuberg  and  himself.  The  people  of  this  duchy 
were  largely  Reformed.  It  has  been  charged  that  he 
became  Reformed  so  as  to  gain  the  affections  of  those 
people,  as  well  as  to  gain  the  aid  of  Holland,  which  was 
a  Reformed  country.  But  even  if  he  did  go  over  to  the 
Reformed  faith  thus,  Hering  answers  the  Lutherans, 
*^  because  Constantine  the  Great  went  over  to  Christianity 
from  political  motives,  is  Christianity  therefore  false  ?" 
And  because  Sigismund  may  have  gone  over  to  the  Re- 
formed faith  for  political  reasons,  is  that  a  sign  that  the 
Reformed  religion  is  false  ?  But  there  are  oue  or  two  con- 
siderations that  make  it  very  unlikely  that  Sigismund 
joined  the  Reformed  Church  from  political  motives. 
One  is  that  the  charge  was  not  brought  forward  against 
him  till  after  his  death.  He  made  enemies  enough  in 
his  life,  so  that  if  there  were  any  truth  in  this  charge,  it 
would  have  come  out  while  he  lived.  And  the  fact  that 
Voltaire  is  the  one  who  makes  the  charge,  makes  one 
suspicious  of  it.  A  second  consideration  is,  that  it  is  to 
be  remembered  that  whatever  political  influence  he  would 
gain  in  Julich-Cleve-Berg  by  going  over  to  the  Reformed 
Church,  he  would  lose  in  his  own  Lutheran  lands  of 
Brandenberg  and  Prussia,  which  were  intensely  Luthir- 
an.  It  has  been  said  that  he  joined  the  Reformed  to 
gain  the  support  of  Holland,  which  was  Reformed.  But 
Holland  did  not  limit  her  support  to  Reformed  princes 
only.     She  supported  Lutheran  Denmark  and  Catholic 


370         THE    REFORMED    CHURCH    OF   GERMANY. 

Portugal  and  Austria.  Moreover  Holland  was  jealous 
of  any  great  power  like  Brandenberg,  snatching  the 
county  of  Cleve,  which  was  so  near  her  borders.  He 
could  not  have  hoped  to  gain  the  sympathy  of  Holland 
by  such  an  act.  The  better  view  is  that  Sigismund  went 
over  to  the  Reformed  faith  from  conviction  of  the  truth 
of  Calvinism,  and  not  from  political  motives.  His 
brother,  prince  Ernest,  had  already  joined  the  Re- 
formed church  at  Sedan.  Ernest,  in  his  palace  chapel 
in  Berlin,  had  had  a  private  celebration  of  the  Lord's 
supper  after  the  Reformed  mode  as  early  as  July,  1613, 
when  Landgrave  Maurice  of  Hesse  visited  him.  The 
Elector's  sou,  John  George,  had  already,  at  Wesel,  par- 
taken of  the  Lord's  supper  and  joined  the  Reformed 
Church.  Fink,  the  new  court  preacher,  was  a  Crypto- 
Calvinist. 

All  these  things  aroused  the  suspicions  of  Gedicke, 
the  champion  of  high  Lutheranism,  and  he  began  to 
protest  against  the  introduction  of  Calvinism.  Fink,  in 
October,  1613,  was  threatened  with  a  mob  by  the  Luth- 
erans. While  he  was  preaching,  they  waited  before  the 
church  door,  with  stones  in  their  hands,  to  stone  him 
when  he  came  out.  They  cried  out :  "  Come  out,  you 
Calvinistic  pope."  Some  of  them  became  bolder  and 
were  about  entering  the  church  to  attack  Fink,  when, 
fortunately,  some  of  the  Elector's  soldiers  passed  by, 
and  took  him  under    their   protection.       These    things 


SIGISMUND    BECOMES    REFORMED.  371 

showed  which  way  the  tide  was  drifting.  Sigismund 
finally  determined  to  come  out  publicly  as  an  adherent 
of  the  Reformed  Church.  On  the  eighteenth  of  De- 
cember  he  summoned  the  ministers  of  Berlin  and  Coelln 
to  the  castle.*  There  is  in  the  royal  castle  at  Berlin  a 
^  white  saloon^  which  is  famous  for  its  ghost  of  the 
White  Lady,  a  spectre  which  is  said  to  appear  just  be- 
fore the  death  of  a  member  of  the  royal  family  of  the 
Hohenzollerns.  A  new,  but  real  ghost  appeared  at 
that  time  in  this  White  Saloon  at  this  meeting,  which 
foretold  the  death  of  Lutheranism  in  the  family  of  the 
Elector.  Chancellor  Pruckman  opened  the  conference 
with  an  address,  which  announced  the  fact  that  the 
Elector  would  celebrate  the  Lord's  supper  after  the  Re- 
formed mode  in  the  cathedral,  on  the  coming  Christ- 
mas. But,  although  the  Elector  himself  joined  the  Re- 
formed Church,  he  wished  it  understood  that  he  did  not 
wish  to  force  his  sul)jects  to  do  so,  too.  He  would 
usurp  no  authority  over  their  consciences.  And  the 
Elector  asked  them  to  give  him  the  same  liberty  of 
conscience  that  he  granted  to  them.  He  ordered  the 
Lutherans  to  cease  their  attacks  on  the  Reformed.  The 
Lutherans  answered  that  every  one  should  be  guided 
by  his  conscience.  But  they  reminded  the  Elector  that 
he  was  breaking  the  oath  taken  at  Halle,  in  1593,  when 

*Berliu  lay  on  the  east  side  of  the  river  Spree.     Ccelln  in- 
cluded the  island  in  the  river  and  the  west  bank  of  the  river. 


372         THE    REFORMED   CHURCH   OF    GERMANY. 

he  promised  never  to  leave  the  Lutheran  faith.  It  is 
true  he  violated  his  oath,  but  in  judging  Sigisraund  for 
it,  we  must  remember  that  he  was  only  following  the 
the  habit  of  his  family  before  him.  Elector  Joachim  I. 
of  Brandenberg,  a  rigid  Catholic,  had  made  his  son  Jo- 
achim take  a  solemn  oath  always  to  remain  a  Catholic. 
His  son  violated  the  oath  and  became  Protestant.  These 
Lutherans  might  have  been  reminded  that,  but  for  the 
violation  of  such  an  oath  by  Joachim,  they  never  would 
have  had  the  Lutheran  faith  in  Brandenberg.  Sigis- 
mund  was  only  following  in  the  footsteps  of  his  ances- 
tor in  thus  violating  his  oath.  He  merely  broke  his 
oath  to  his  grandfather,  Joachim,  as  he  had  done  to  his 
father  before  him.  The  fact  is,  that  on  religious  ques- 
tions, conscience  is  supreme. 

So,  on  Christmas,  1613,  the  Elector  publicly  joined 
the  Reformed  Church  by  partaking  of  the  Reformed 
communion  in  the  cathedral  church  at  Berlin.*  Fussel 
and  Fink  distributed  the  bread,  instead  of  the  wafers,  to 
about  fifty-five  communicants,  mainly  the  nobles  of  the 
court.  The  next  Reformed  communion  was  held  on 
Easter,  1614,  when  the  court  preacher  of  the  Palatinate, 

*Tbe  old  building,  which  thus  became  historic  by  this  intro- 
duction of  the  Reformed  faith  into  Brandenberg,  was  situated 
next  to  the  palace,  on  the  present  Schlossplatz  or  castle  square, 
south  of  the  palace.  It  was  torn  down  by  King  Frederick  the 
Great,  because  it  threatened  to  fall  down.  He  erected  the 
present  cathedral  on  the  other  side  of  the  palace.  A  wooden  de- 
sign of  the  old  building  is  in  the  Hohenzollern  Museum  in  Ber- 
lin. 


HE    RECEIVES    REFORMED    COMMUNION.  373 

Scultetus,  preached  and  administered  the  Lord's  supper 
to  seventy-four  communicants.*  Scultetus  then  left 
Berlin,  to  iro  to  his  former  home  in  Silesia,  hut  he 
airain  returned  to  Berlin  in  the  autumn.  Then  he  in- 
stalled  two  Reformed  ministers  over  the  Reformed  con- 
gregation at  Berlin,  and  returned  to  his  home  at  Hei- 
delberg. 

The  conversion  of  Sigismund  created    a  great   stir 
both  inside  and  outside  of  his  land.     His  wife,  a  Prus- 

^A.  hii>:h  Lutheran,  nainerl  Huber,  wrote  a-^ainst  BMnk,  and 
said  that  at  the  lirst  Reformed  communion  in  Berlin  he  had  in- 
troduced a  new  kind  of  bread-breaking,  even  different  from  the 
custom  of  the  other  Reformed  churches.  Huber  opposed  Cal- 
vinism, because  he  said  they  had  so  many  different  methods  of 
communing.  Thus,  he  says,  at  Berne  they  used  wafers.  At 
Basle,  Gryneus  used  little  cakes  of  bread.  In  Zurich  they  re- 
mained sitting,  and  the  students  came  with  wooden  platters,  on 
which  the  wafer  cakes  were  laid,  and  each  communicant  broke 
a  piece  from  them.  In  Heidelberg  a  platter  with  broken  bread 
was  placed  on  the  table,  from  which  each  one  broke  a  piece  of 
bread  or  crumb.  In  Hesse  small  pieces  of  bread  as  wide  as  a 
dollar,  cut  cross-wise  by  the  baker  into  four  quarter  pieces,  were 
used.  These  the  minister  broke  into  as  many  pieces  as  he 
needed.  But  Huber  claimed  that  Fink  introduced  a  new  kind 
of  bread-breaking,  namely— that  the  crust  was  cut  from  the 
bread,  the  bread  cut  into  long  pieces,  and  these  afterwards 
broken  into  morsels  and  given  to  the  communicants.  These 
facts  are  interesting,  even  if  they  were  all  true;  but  all  this 
looks  like  a  species  of  ecclesiastical  dissection  that  is  not  hardly 
worthy  of  notice.  This  charge  of  Iluber's,  that  this,  the  firsl 
communion,  was  not  a  purely  Reformed  one,  is  nor,  probable; 
for  Fussel,  who  had  charge  of  it,  came  to  Berlin  from  .Vnhalt, 
where  he  must  have  been  familiar  with  the  Reformed  customs. 
And  even  if  the  bread  was  given  out  in  this  way  at  the  tirst 
communion,  it  was  changed  at  the  next  c  )mmunion  to  the  Pa- 
latinate method,  which  still  prevails  in  Brandenl)erg. 


374         THE    REFORMED   CHURCH    OF   GERMANY. 

sian  princess,  remained  a  bitter  Lutheran  to  the  end  of 
her  life.  She  opposed  the  Reformed,  because  she  sup- 
posed they  taught  that  Christ  was  only  a  man.  In  her 
last  will,  she  ordered  her  chaplain,  in  her  funeral  ser- 
mon, to  disown  the  Calvinistic  heresy,— "  that  Christ's 
blood  and  death  are  merely  a  man's  blood  and  death." 

The  feeling  of  the  people  against  the  Elector  was 
intense,  notwithstanding  the  Elector's  grant  of  relig- 
ious liberty  to  them.  In  1614  he  issued  a  decree  pro- 
claiming freedom  of  conscience  to  both  the  Lutherans 
and  the  Reformed.  He  did  not  believe  in  the  common 
maxim  of  the  age,  "  Like  prince,  like  people."  The 
people  should  be  allowed  to  worship  God  as  they 
wished.  He  was,  therefore,  the  first  to  proclaim  liberty 
of  conscience.  Before  it  was  declared  by  the  Puritans 
on  Plymouth  Rock,  or  by  the  Baptists  at  Providence, 
the  Reformed  at  Berlin  gave  utterance  to  it.  Still,  in 
spite  of  this  liberty,  the  Lutheran  ministers  attacked  the 
Calvinists.  One  said  the  Koran  was  more  truthful  than 
the  Calvinists.  Another  charged  that  on  ninety-nine 
points  the  Calvinists  agreed  with  the  Turks.  Another 
said,  he  would  give  two,  yes  three  hundred  arguments, 
why  the  teaching  of  the  Calvinists  was  worse  than  the 
teaching  of  the  devil.  They  called  the  Calvinists  'dogs.' 
The  Reformed  were  followed  with  abuse  in  the  streets. 
The  people  stoned  the  preachers.  The  Elector,  to  calm 
the  feelings  of  the  people,  held  a  conference  of  the  min- 


RIOT    AT   BERLIN.  375 

isters ;  but  it  produced  no  result.  The  feeling  of  the 
people  finally  broke  out  into  open  riot  on  the  third  of 
April,  1615.  Elector  Sigismund  had  ordered  that  be- 
fore Holy  Week  all  pictures,  altars,  crucifixes,  fonts,  etc., 
should  be  put  out  of  the  church.  Instead  of  an  altar, 
a  plain,  communion  table  was  placed  in  the  chancel.* 

On  the  following  Sunday,  which  was  Palm  Sunday, 
Stuler,  one  of  the  pastors  of  the  neighboring  St.  Peter's 
church,  preached  very  violently  against  this  removal  of 
Lutheran  altars  and  pictures.  He  defended  the  use  of 
pictures  in  churches,  and  especially  a  stone  picture  or 
sculpture  to  the  right  of  the  pulpit.  In  his  zeal  he  even 
went  so  far  as  to  become  abusive  of  the  Elector.  He 
said  that  if  the  Elector  wanted  to  reform,  he  should  go 
to  Julich,  where  he  would  find  enough  to  reform.  He 
became  so  abusive  that  even  the  Electress  and  her  court 
preacher,  Muller,  were  offended  at  him.  Afterward  he 
asked  the  Electress  and  the  mayor  that  a  watch  might 
be  placed  over  him  that  night,  lest  he  might  be  pri- 
vately arrested  by  the  Elector  for  what  he  had  said 
against  him.  But  it  was  refused.  So  he  stole  away  on 
Monday  to  Schoneberg,  as  he  expected  to  be  arrested 
that  night.  As  he  left  town,  he  complained  to  every 
one  he  met,  about  the  great  danger  he  was  in.    His  fears, 

*There  had  been  twelve  silver  and  gilt  apostles,  with  a  statue 
of  Christ,  all  of  life  size,  in  the  church.  These  were  removed  to 
the  fortCustrin,  where  they  remained  till  1631,  when  they  were 
melted  down  and  made  into  dollars. 


376  THE    REFORMED    CHURCH    OF    GERMANY. 

howeverj  were  the  result  of  his  own  imagiuation.  There 
was  not  any  truth  in  them,  for  the  Elector  was  not  at 
home  at  the  time.  They  were  the  phantoms  of  a  guilty 
conscience.  But  his  words  raised  a  tremendous  tumult 
in  Berlin.  As  he  did  not  return  on  Monday  night,  the 
rumor  spread  abroad  that  he  was  arrested.  This  caused 
anxiety.  His  wife  told  all,  that  the  Margrave  intended 
to  arrest  him  that  night,  and  put  him  in  the  Green  Hat 
(a  name  given  to  the  dungeon  in  the  castle).  She  dealt 
out  beer=  to  the  crowd  gathering  around,  until  they  be- 
came overheated  by  excitement  and  beer.  So  a  crowd 
of  five  hundred  strong  went  down  the  Bruderstrasse 
(Brothers'  Street)  to  court  preacher  Fussel's  house  and 
threw  stones  into  its  windows.  They  also  did  the  same 
to  Fink's  house,  and  to  the  court  apothecary's,  who  was 
known  to  be  a  Calvinist.  They  threatened  to  break  the 
necks  of  the  Reformed  ministers. 

The  news  of  the  danger  was  brought  to  the  castle  at 
ten  P.  M.,  just  as  the  Margrave  was  going  to  bed.  He 
had  charge  of  the  city  in  the  absence  of  the  Elector ;  and 
he  supposed  his  presence  would  be  sufficient  to  quiet  any 
disturbance.  So,  armed  only  with  a  fencing  foil,  he 
started  out  with  only  eight  cavalrymen  and  some  halber- 
diers on  foot.  But  when  he  arrived  at  the  church  >ard 
of  St.  Peter's,  he  found  an  angry,  dangerous  crowd.  He 
urged  them  to  go  home,  as  there  was  no  need  of  alarm. 
But  the  crowd  thouo-ht  that  now  Stuler's  words  had  come 


RIOT    IN    BERLIN.  377 

true,  and  the  Margrave  had  come  out  to  arrest  that  Lu- 
theran pastor.  So  they  became  more  angry  than  ever. 
The  mob  sheltered  itself  behind  the  wall  of  the  church 
yard,  which  ran  through  Green  street.  But  some  one 
of  the  Margrave's  company  shot  off  a  pistol.  This  made 
the  mob  angrier  than  ever.  They  broke  in  the  door  of 
St.  Peter's  church,  rushed  up  the  tower,  rang  the  alarm 
bell,  thus  calling  the  citizens  of  Berlin  to  come  over. 
The  alarm  and  the  danger  became  greater  than  ever. 
The  people  of  Berlin  streamed  across  the  long  bridge 
and  the  mill  dam.  The  Margrave  became  alarmed  at 
the  gathering  crowd,  and  slowly  retreated  down  the  Bru- 
derstrasse  to  the  burgomaster's  house.  He  hurried  the 
burgomaster,  Jahnens,  out  of  his  house,  before  he  had 
even  time  to  complete  his  toilet,  so  that  he  might  quiet 
the  people.  But  this  act,  instead  of  quieting  the  people, 
only  made  them  angrier.  They  got  the  idea  that  the 
Margrave  had  arrested  the  burgomaster,  so  as  to  take 
him  to  the  dungeon  in  the  castle.  They  shouted  :  "  Kill 
the  Margrave.  Plunder  the  castle."  In  vain  did  the 
burgomaster  call  out  to  the  people  that  he  was  not  ar- 
rested. The  people  then  turned  against  him  and  crieil 
out :  "Down  with  him.  He  betrays  us.  He  courts  the 
Elector's  favor."  The  burgomaster  became  so  alarmed 
that  he  begged  the  Elector's  secretary,  Fehrer,  who  hap- 
pened to  look  out  of  his  window,  to  let  him  come  into 
his  house  for  safety.  The  crowd  then  began  to  stone 
25 


378         THE   REFORMED   CHURCH    OF   GERMANY. 

the  Margrave  and  his  body  guard.  He  retired  to  a 
house  on  the  Bruder-strasse  after  ten  of  his  men  had 
been  wounded.  He  finally  retired  to  the  castle.  But 
the  mob  was  not  satisfied  with  what  had  happened.  The 
worse  part  of  them  went  to  the  house  of  the  Reformed 
preacher,  Fussel,  and  stormed  it.  Armed  with  axes, 
they  broke  in  the  door,  crying :  ''Where  is  the  parson  ? 
Kill  the  Calvinistic  dog.''  He  and  his  family  escaped 
out  of  a  dormer  window  to  the  roof  of  a  neighboring 
house.  The  plunderers  stole  his  books,  silver- ware  and 
clothing.  The  plundering  continued  till  4  A.  M.  Fus- 
sel afterwards  wrote  to  a  friend,  saying  that  there  were 
six  assassins  in  the  house,  who  went  there  not  to  plunder, 
but  to  kill  him.  He  was  so  badly  robbed  that  he  had 
no  clothing  left,  but  what  he  had  on.  So  he  went  into 
the  pulpit  on  Thursday  of  Holy  Week  in  a  green  waist- 
coat, over  which  he  had  cast  a  cloak,  loaned  him  by  one 
of  the  council.  This  act  of  a  minister  going  into  a  pul- 
pit with  a  green  waistcoat  was  an  incongruous  one,  but 
mobs  pay  no  attention  to  the  proprieties  of  life.  The 
mob  threatened  that  Chancellor  Pruckman's  house  would 
be  treated  similarly  the  next  night,  yes,  perhaps  the  cas- 
tle itself. 

The  Elector  returned  to  the  city  the  next  day. 
When  he  heard  the  news,  he  hardly  knew  what  to  do. 
He  did  not  dare  take  severe  measures  against  the  lead- 
ers, because  of  the  anger  of  the  people.     When  the  coun- 


RESULTS   OF   THE    RIOT.  379 

cil  of  Coellu  appeared  before  him  to  apologize  tor  the 
riot,  he  merely  reproached  them,  that  they  did  not  shut 
the  gates  of  the  town  to  prevent  a  riot,  and  thus  keep 
out  the  people  who  came  over  from  Berlin  ;  and  that 
after  Fussel's  house  had  been  robbed,  they  did  not 
close  the  gates  and  keep  the  robbers  in,  as  they  did  in 
ordinary  robberies.  He  did  not  make  any  farther  in- 
quiry, but  ordered  that  a  citizens'  guard  should  be 
raised,  and  that  horses  should  be  kept  saddled  in  the 
castle,  in  case  they  were  needed. 

When  Stuler  heard  of  the  mild  measures  taken  by 
the  Elector  against  the  plunderers,  he  took  courage  and 
came  back  to  Berlin.  On  Green  Thursday  and  Easter 
he  again  stirred  up  the  people.  He  said  that  the  Elec- 
tor had  ordered  that  a  citizens'  watch  should  be  formed 
and  arms  placed  in  the  castle,  so  that  suddenly,  when 
no  one  thought  of  it,  the  Elector  would  take  revenge  on 
the  people  of  Coelln.  His  preaching  was  quite  in  con- 
trast with  FusseFs  on  Holy  Thursday.  Fussel  preached 
an  impassioned  sermon,  in  which  he  pardoned  all  his 
enemies,  as  they  knew  not  what  they  did  ;  and  reminded 
each  one  of  his  solemn  duty  to  God  and  the  state.  Stu- 
ler's  words  took  effect,  and  a  rumor  spread  itself  abroad 
that  the  Elector  was  secretly  laying  plans  to  massacre 
the  Lutherans— that  he  would  suddenly  fall  on  them  by 
night  and  cause  a  new  massacre  of  St.  Bartholomew  to 
take  place.     The  Elector,  when  he  heard  of  it,  sent  word 


380         THE    REFORMED   CHURCH    OF   GERMANY. 

to  the  council  of  Coelln  that  he  had  never  thought  of 
such  a  thing.  Gradually  the  people  quieted  down  and 
confidence  was  restored.  But  Stuler,  fearing  arrest, 
and  feeling  that  the  people  did  not  support  him  in  his 
severe  language,  left  the  city  and  fled  to  Wittenberg. 

Such  was  the  feeling  in  Berlin  against  the  Elector 
and  his  Reformed  innovations.  The  feeling  in  many 
parts  of  Brandenberg  was  almost  as  bitter.  But  still 
the  Elector  quietly  proceeded  to  introduce  his  Eeformed 
faith,  wherever  it  was  possible  without  giving  offence. 
He  not  only  reformed  his  Church,  but  also  made  his 
university  at  Frankford  on  the  Oder  Reformed.  It's 
theological  professors,  Pelargus  and  Bergius,  became 
Reformed.  Bergius  became  the  great  leader  of  the  Re- 
formed Church  of  Brandenberg.  He  was  a  very  mod- 
erate Calvinist.  He  was  ordered  by  the  Elector  to  go 
to  the  Synod  of  Dort,  but  he  declined  for  various  rea- 
sons. When  his  colleague  in  the  university,  Evell, 
went  over  to  supralapsarian  predestination,  Bergius 
preached  against  it.  He  followed  the  confession  that 
Sigismund  had  promulgated  in  1614,  which,  while  mod- 
erately Calvinistic,  was  sublapsarian  and  held  to  the 
universal  atonement.  A  Reformed  church  was  also 
organized  at  Frankford,  whijch  worshipped  at  first  in 
the  aula  of  the  university.  Then  the  great  church 
(which  is  still  the  university  church),  was  given  them, 
where  they  worshipped  with  the  Lutherans.     In  1650 


RESULTS   OF   SIGISMUND's   CONVERSION.  381 

the  Reformed  received  a  churcli  of  their  own,  the  St. 
Nicolas  church,  which  had  been  unoccupied  since  the 
reformation.  The  Elector  tried  to  organize  a  Reformed 
congregation  at  Konigsberg,  in  East  Prussia.  But,  be- 
sides service  in  the  chapel  of  his  palace,  he  was  not  suc- 
cessful. It  was  not  till  1636  that  there  was  a  Reformed 
preacher  at  Konigsberg,  and  in  1690  the  corner-stone  of  a 
Reformed  church  was  laid  there.  There  were  then  only 
two  Reformed  churches  in  Brandenberg,  one  sl^  Berlin, 
and  one  at  Frankford.  These  were  afterwards  rein- 
forced by  the  large  Huguenot  immigration  from  France. 
The  Elector  and  court  became  Reformed,  while  the 
people  remained  Lutheran.  Religious  liberty  was 
granted  to  all.  On  this  Frederick  the  Great,  more  than 
a  century  later,  based  his  remark  that  in  Prussia  every 
one  could  go  to  heaven  after  his  own  fashion. 

The  conversion  of  Sigismund  to  the  Reformed  faith 
was  fraught  with  most  important  results.  Next  to  the 
conversion  of  the  Elector  of  the  Palatinate  in  1561,  his 
conversion  was  the  most  important  that  had  taken  place 
in  Germany.  The  conversion  of  Sigismund  secured 
two  Electors  to  the  Reformed  faith  in  Germany.  It 
thus  secured  recognition  for  it  in  Germany,  and  gave  it 
the  protection  ;  without  which  it  would  have  suffered 
greatly,  if  not  been  exterminated.  After  the  Thirty 
Years'  War,  it  was  the  Elector  of  Brandenberg  who  se- 
cured to  the  Reformed  the  right  to  exist  in  Germany 
under  the  treaty  of  Westphalia.     And    when  later  still 


382         THE   REFORMED   CHURCH    OF   GERMANY. 

the  Catholic  Elector  of  the  Palatinate  so  terribly  perse- 
cuted the  Reformed  of  that  land,  he  threatened,  if  he  did 
not  cease,  that  he  would  retaliate  on  the  Catholics  in 
Brandenberg.  He  thus  stood  forth  as  the  protector  of 
the  Reformed.  And  when  the  Lutheran  Elector  of 
Saxony  went  back  to  the  Romish  faith,  and  the  Elector 
of  the  Palatinate  lost  his  throne,  he  alone  remained 
as  the  great  protector  of  Protestantism  in  Germany. 
This  house  of  Brandenberg  has  since  developed  into  the 
royal  family  of  Germany.  We  have  been  informed  by 
Rev.  Dr.  SchafP  that  the  Heidelberg  catechism  is  still 
used  by  the  royal  family  in  the  instruction  of  its  princes. 
The  Reformed  Church  then  owes  a  good  deal  to  this 
conversion  of  Brandenberg.  And  Brandenberg  owes  a 
great  deal  to  the  Reformed  Church  for  its  prosperity  and 
success.  The  Reformed  faith  by  its  simplicity  taught  sim- 
plicity of  court  manners.  It  thus  developed  economy, 
fidelity  and  integrity.  Its  religion  brought  that  land  into 
connection  with  Reformed  Holland  and  England  (the 
two  rising  powers  of  Europe),  which  aided  the  growth  of 
Prussia.  It  led  the  Elector  to  invite  into  his  dominions 
thousands  of  French  Reformed  refugees,  who,  by  their 
industry  and  prosperity,  laid  the  foundation  of  Prussia's 
future  greatness.  And  the  present  Emperor  William, 
trained  in  the  Heidelberg  catechism  in  his  youth,  stands 
out  before  the  world  as  a  shining  specimen  of  the  piety 
of  the  Heidelberg  catechism  and  of  the  Reformed  Church 
of  Germany. 


CHAPTER  lY.— SECTION  V. 

Introduction  of  the  Reformed  Faith  into  Liegnitz, 
Schonaicher,  &c. 

The  last  counties  in  Germany  to  receive  the  Re- 
formed faith  were  Liegnitz  and  Schonaicher.     The  Duke 
of  Liegnitz  was  the  high  prince  of  Silesia,  and  hence  a 
prominent  noble  of  Eastern  Germany.     His  conversion, 
therefore,  caused  quite  a  stir  in  that  Lutheran  section  of 
Germany.     Liegnitz    is  situated    west   of  Breslau,  the 
birthplace   of   Ursinus.     But   the    movement  that    led 
Liegnitz  into  the  Reformed  Church,  was  not  connected 
with  the  movement  in  that  direction  in  the  days  of  Ur- 
sinus; but  it  was  caused   by  the  intermarriage  of  the 
Duke  of  Liegnitz  with  the  Princess  of  Anhalt,  which  had 
become  Reformed.  The  prince  had  a  Reformed  councillor 
in  Wenzel  of  Zedlitz.     It  has  been  a  debated  question 
whether  Duke  Joachim  Frederick  became  Reformed  be- 
fore he  died  or  not.     The  Reformed  historians  held  that 
he  did ;  the   Lutheran  historians  held  that  he  did  not. 
At  any  rate  he  simplified  the  ceremonies  of  the  Lutheran 
Church   very  much.     He  put  away  all  ornaments,  or- 
gans and  pictures  out  of  the  castle  church ;  so  that  its 
simplicity  became  a  novelty  to  the  Lutherans  of  Eastern 


384         THE   REFORMED   CHURCH   OF   GERMANY. 

Germany.  But  it  was  his  son,  Duke  John  Christian  of 
Brieg,  who  fully  introduced  the  Reformed  faith  into  the 
duchy.  As  the  Emperor  Rudolph  of  Germany  tried  to 
get  his  family  to  send  him  to  the  imperial  court,  to  be 
educated  by  the  Jesuits ;  he  was  sent  to  Berlin,  where  he 
would  be  safe  from  the  machinations  of  the  Emperor. 
His  marriage  with  the  daughter  of  the  Elector  of  Bran- 
denberg  brought  him  into  close  connection  with  that 
court.  And  when  that  Elector,  in  1613,  went  over  to 
the  Reformed  faith,  he  followed  him.  Neomenius,  his 
superintendent,  being  a  Calvinist,  greatly  aided  in  its 
introduction. 

There  seems  to  be  some  doubt  about  the  exact  date 
of  the  introduction  of  the  Reformed  faith  into  Liegnitz. 
One  writer  says  it  was  introduced  in  1614,  and  another 
in  1619.  These  two  dates  may  be  harmonized  by  say- 
ing that  the  Duke  adhered  to  the  Reformed  Church  as 
early  as  1614,  but  did  not  publicly  introduce  the  Re- 
formed customs  into  his  land  till  1619,  as  his  people 
were  all  intensely  Lutheran.  But  about  that  time  the 
Reformed  influence  became  very  strong  in  neighboring 
Bohemia,  and  the  Duke  took  courage  to  introduce  it. 
On  Christmas,  1619,  the  Duke  and  Duchess,  with  per- 
sons from  Breslau  and  Neisse,  eighty-five  in  all,  partook 
of  the  communion  after  the  Reformed  mode.  In  the 
next  year,  the  presence  of  Frederick  V.,  the  Elector  of 
the  Palatinate,  the  new  King  of  Bohemia,  in  Breslau 


LIEGNITZ   AND   SCHONAICHER.  385 

greatly  helped  the  introduction  of  the  Reformed  faith. 
Scultetus,  the  great  court  preacher  of  Elector  Frederick 
V.  of  the  Palatinate,  came  then  to  Breslau  and  preached. 
Indeed,  Scultetus  was  a  Silesian  by  birth,  and  greatly 
aided  the  introduction  of  the  Reformed  faith  in  his  home 
in  Eastern  Germany.  Thus  the  court  and  its  members 
and  the  gymnasium,  founded  by  the  Duke,  were  Re- 
formed ;  but  the  people  were,  for  the  most  part,  liU- 
theran.  The  Reformed  faith  was  also  introduced  into 
Breslau  during  the  brief  presence  of  King  Frederick  of 
Bohemia.  And  thus  Ursinus'  home  had  an  opportunity 
to  receive  the  Reformed  Church. 

Schonaicher, 

The  noble  family  of  Schonaicher  was  a  well  known 
and  highly  honored  family  in  Eastern  Germany.  The 
county  seat  of  Schonaicher  was  Beuthen,  north  of  Lieg- 
nitz.  Near  Beuthen  was  the  castle  Carolath,  belonging 
to  the  Schonaicher  family.  Count  George  of  Schonaicher 
introduced  the  Reformed  faith  and  customs  into  his  land. 
His  little  county  became  quite  influential  for  its  size. 
He  founded  a  gymnasium,  which  exerted  a  wide  influ- 
ence for  the  Reformed  faith  over  Eastern  Germany. 
Situated  in  a  corner  between  Brandenberg,  Silesia  and 
Poland,  it  drew  for  support  on  all  those  lands,  and  in 
return  it  influenced  them  toward  the  Reformed  faith. 
It  was  in  close  sympathy  with  the  neighboring  Reformed 


386         THE    KEFORMED    CHURCH    OF   GERMANY. 

university  of  Frankford  on  the  Oder.  The  noble  fam- 
ily of  Carolath-Beuthen,  as  it  is  now  called,  still  remains 
Eeformed,  although  the  Liegnitz  family  has  gone  into 
the  Evangelical  or  United  Church  of  Germany. 

An  attempt  was  also  made  to  introduce  the  Reformed 
faith  into  Mecklenberg,  at  Gustrow,  in  1618,  by  Duke 
John  Albert,  and  also  to  introduce  it  into  Gottorp  near 
Schleswig,  by  Count  John  Adolph  in  1610,  but  both  at- 
tempts perished  with  the  death  of  these  princes.  The 
Reformed  faith  was  also  introduced  into  the  neighboring 
districts  of  Poland,  as  Dantzig  and  Elbing  (now  included 
in  Germany).  Between  1590  and  1606  the  Reformed 
were  in  the  majority  in  those  cities.  At  Dantzig  a  Re- 
formed gymnasium    was  founded  under  Keckerman. 


CHAPTER  V. 

The  Close  of  the  Introduction  of  the  Reformed 
Church  into  Germany. 

With  the  year  1620  ended  the  introduction  of  the 
Reformed  faith  into  Germany.  It  would  be  a  pleasant 
task,  were  there  time,  to  describe  the  immigration  of 
thousands  of  the  French  Reformed  people  into  Ger- 
many in  the  seventeenth  century ;  but  space  forbids. 
Only  two  events  remain  to  close  this  history,  before  a 
new  era  begins,  in  1620,  with  the  Thirty  Years'  War. 
One  of  these  two  events  was  political  ;  the  other  was 
theological.  Both  marked  the  culmination  of  the  influ- 
ences previously  at  work.  The  one  was  the  election  of 
Elector  Frederick  V.  of  the  Palatinate  to  be  King  of 
Boliemia ;  the  other  was  the  Synod  of  Dort. 

SECTION  I. 

Elector  Frederick  V.  of  the  Palatinate.    1610—20. 

Elector  Frederick  V.  was  only  fourteen  years  of  age 
when  his  father,  Frederick  IV.,  died.  At  once  there 
came  up  the  question  of  the  guardianship  of  the  child. 
The  nearest   relatives    were  the   two    noble    Palatinate 


388         THE   REFORMED   CHURCH   OF   GERMANY. 

families  of  Neuberg  and  Zweibriicken.  But  Elector 
Frederick  IV.  had  foreseen  this  difficulty.  And,  being 
fearful  that  the  Catholic  prince  of  Neuberg  might  be- 
come guardian  and  then  educate  his  son  as  a  Catholic, 
Frederick  IV.  arranged  that  Count  John  of  Zweibriick- 
en was  placed  in  that  position  before  he  died.  The 
Duke  of  Neuberg  made  an  attempt  to  secure  the  guar- 
dianship ;  but  Count  John  had  possession  of  the  posi- 
tion, and  could  not  be  moved.  Count  John,  who  was 
an  adherent  of  the  Reformed  Church,  was  a  wise  states- 
man and  a  good  guardian  to  Frederick.  When  Fred- 
erick V.  became  eighteen  years  of  age,  he  assumed  his 
duties  as  ruler  of  the  Palatinate.  The  two  most  im- 
portant events  in  the  early  part  of  his  reign  were  his 
marriage  to  the  princess  Elizabeth,  daughter  of  King 
James  I.  of  England,  and  his  election  to  the  throne  of 
Bohemia. 

Elector  Frederick  in  his  youth  was  educated  at  the 
court  of  the  Duke  of  Bouillon,  at  Sedan.  At  the  sug- 
gestion of  this  duke,  a  marriage  between  Frederick  and 
Elizabeth  was  projected.  This  was  an  important  event 
in  a  political  point  of  view  ;  for  it  united  the  two  pow- 
erful Reformed  states  of  England  and  the  Palatinate. 
The  English  people,  at  first,  were  somewhat  opposed  to 
the  match,  especially  the  Catholics,  who  wanted  King 
James  to  marry  his  daughter  to  a  Catholic  prince.  And 
her  marriage  into  the  royal  family  of  Spain  was  spoken 


MARRIAGE   OF    FREDERICK.  :^89 

of.  They  objected  to  Frederick  that  he  was  only  a 
German  prince,  and  was  not  high  enough  in  rank  to 
marry  the  princess  of  England.  But  the  Palatinate 
ambassador  declared  that  a  German  prince  was  higher 
in  rank  than  an  English  baron.  He  reminded  them 
that  Frederick  was  the  foremost  prince  of  the  German 
empire,  and  was  equal  in  rank  to  the  King  of  Denmark, 
whose  territory  and  influence  were  less  than  Frederick's. 
The  Protestants  of  England  looked  with  favor  on 
the  match,  because  they  felt  it  would  strengthen  the 
influence  of  Protestantism  in  the  royal  house  of  Eng- 
land. And  because  Frederick  was  Reformed,  the  Re- 
formed people  of  England  inclined  toward  him.  When 
he  arrived  in  England,  they  were  captivated  by  the 
fine  appearance  and  elegant  manners  of  the  young  prince. 
He  took  the  place  of  the  late  prince  of  Wales  in  their 
hearts.  And  although  this  marriage  w^as  intended  to  be 
a  political  one,  yet  as  soon  as  Frederick  and  Elizabeth 
saw  each  other,  it  changed  into  a  real  love  match  be- 
tween the  two.  All  kinds  of  honors  were  showered  on 
Frederick  in  England.  The  freedom  of  the  city  of 
London  was  given  to  him.  He  was  made  a  knight  of 
the  royal  order  of  the  garter.  The  wedding  took  place 
on  February  14,  1613,  the  Bishop  of  Wales  officiating. 
Frederick  then  visited  Cambridge  and  Oxford,  where 
he  left  his  autograph  in  the  album  of  the  university. 
He  sailed  with   his  bride  on   the  20th  of  April   in   the 


390         THE   REFORMED   CHURCH    OF   GERMANY. 

Prince  Royal,  an  Admiral  ship  of  the  English  navy, 
and  landed  at  Flushing.  The  progress  of  the  princely 
pair  homeward  to  Heidelberg  was  like  a  triumphal 
procession.  The  Palatinate  ships  met  Elizabeth  away 
down  the  Rhine,  below  Bonn.  Everywhere  the  recep- 
tion by  the  Germans  was  most  cordial.  When  Freder- 
ick and  Elizabeth  arrived  at  Heidelberg,  on  the  7th  of 
June,  the  town  was  filled  with  strangers,  two  thousand 
guests  having  arrived.  These,  in  military  procession, 
awaited  the  entrance  of  the  princely  pair.  Salutes  of 
cannon  were  fired,  the  city  was  adorned  with  triumphal 
arches,  the  whole  town  was  decked  with  flowers ;  and  for 
a  week  there  were  games  and  festivities  in  honor  of  the 
wedding. 

This  marriage  greatly  changed  the  court  life  at  Hei- 
delberg. Before  this,  it  had  been  rather  simple ;  but 
now  it  became  splendid  and  extravagant.  The  Elector, 
who  was  a  devoted  husband,  built  for  his  beautiful 
bride,  the  west  end  of  the  castle,  called  to  this  day  "  the 
English  building."  He  wished  her  to  have  a  home  that 
would  rival  the  palace  she  had  left  in  England.  He  had 
the  gardens  of  the  palace  laid  out  by  the  famous  Norman 
gardener,  Salomon  de  Cans.  These  grounds  were  beau- 
tifully terraced,  and  ornamented  with  grottoes,  which 
were  lined  with  precious  stones  and  corals.  There  were 
beautiful  lakes  and  also  fountains,  so  constructed  as  to 
sprinkle  the  visitor   unawares.       An   orangerie  of  four 


FREDERICK    ELECTED   KING   OF    BOHEMIA.       391 

hundred  trees  was  planted.  Indeed,  the  garden  was 
one  of  the  wonders  of  its  day.  It  was  considered  so 
fine  that  it  excited  the  envy  of  King  Louis  XIV.  of 
France,  lest  it  would  outrival  his  famous  gardens  at 
Versailles.* 

The  political  relations  between  the  Protestant  Union, 
of  which  Frederick  was  the  leader,  and  the  Catholic 
League,  were  becoming  more  and  more  strained.  In 
1617  occurred  the  centennial  of  the  reformation  (when 
Luther  nailed  his  theses  on  the  church  door  at  Witten- 
berg.) By  this  the  Protestants  were  stirred  up  to  great- 
er devotion  to  their  cause,  and  to  greater  hatred  of  the 
Catholics.  The  synod  of  Dort  still  further  aided  in  in- 
tensifying religious  feeling.  The  bigotry  and  persecu- 
tion of  the  Catholics  hastened  on  the  impending  war. 
At  the  death  of  the  Emperor  Matthias,  Frederick,  as 
regent  of  the  empire,  threw  down  the  gauntlet  to  the 
Hapsburgs,  by  opposing  the  election  of  their  candidate 
for  the  German  throne.  But  he  was  not  able  to  hinder 
the  election  of  Ferdinand  as  Emperor.  The  Bohemians 
refused  to  acknowledge  Ferdinand  as  their  Emperor  and 
formally  deposed  him,  electing  Frederick  instead.  This 
placed  him  in  opposition  to  the  Emperor,  for  the  Em- 
peror claimed  jurisdiction  over  Bohemia,  although  the 
Bohemians  claimed  the  right  to  elect  their  own  king. 
Although  urged  to  decline  the  election  by  many  of  his 

*For  a  picture  of  this  garden,  see  the  frontispiece. 


392         THE    REFORMED   CHURCH   OF    GERMANY. 

best  statesmen,  as  the  Dake  of  Anhalt,  yet  Frederick 
(mainly  at  the  request  of  Scultetus,  leader  of  the  Re- 
formed Church  of  his  day)  accepted  the  position  of  king. 
Into  the  sad  fortunes  of  the  Winter  King  (for  Frederick 
ruled  only  one  short  winter  at  Prague)  we  have  no  time 
to  enter.  Nor  is  this  the  place  to  describe  the  faithful- 
ness of  the  Electress  Elizabeth  in  her  trials  and  exile. 
Frederick,  driven  out  of  the  Palatinate,  died  an  exile, 
but  the  beautiful  Elizabeth  became  the  mother  of  kings. 
Her  youngest  daughter  became  the  mother  of  King 
George  I.,  of  England,  and  the  ancestress  of  the  present 
Queen  Victoria.  Her  granddaughter  Elizabeth  Char- 
lotte became  the  mother  of  the  Duke  of  Orleans,  which 
family  held  the  regency  of  France  under  Louis  XY. 
and  ruled  France  in  this  century.  Her  daughter  be- 
came the  mother  of  the  Duke  of  Lorraine,  from  whom 
the  present  royal  family  of  Austria  is  descended.  Ex- 
iled themselves,  this  princely  pair  through  their  children 
have  ruled  England,  France  and  Austria.  Thus  the 
house  of  the  Palatinate  went  down  for  a  while  during 
the  Thirty  Years'  War,  only  to  become  the  ancestor  of 
kings,  as  it  had  been  the  founder  of  the  Reformed  Church 
in  Germany. 


CHAPTER  v.— SECTION  II. 

The  Synod  of  Dort. 

The  synod  of  Dort  was  a  synod  of  Holland,  and  not 
of  Germany.  But,  as  it  was  the  outgrowth  of  the  move- 
ment begun  by  the  Dutch  refugees  along  the  lower 
Rhine,  as  the  German  members  of  it  affected  its  deci- 
sions and  were  in  turn  affected  by  it,  and  especially  as 
it  is  a  side  light,  that  reveals  the  condition  of  the  Church 
of  Germany,  an  account  of  it  will  be  interesting  and 
profitable. 

The  first  General  Synod  of  the  Xetherland  churches 
was  held  at  Antwerp  in  1566.  It  was  composed  largely 
of  delegates  from  Belgium,  and  it  adopted  the  Belgic 
Confession,  composed  by  Guido  De  Bres,  the  originator 
of  the  Reformed  faith  in  the  Netherlands.  But  the 
next  year  the  Duke  of  A\vsl  left  loose  his  cruel  soldiers 
on  Holland,  and  the  Protestants  were  driven  out.  For 
five  or  six  years,  the  Dutch  Reformed  Church,  as  an  or- 
ganization, existed  only  on  German  soil.  Its  next  synod 
was  held  at  Wesel  in  1568,  followed  by  another  synod  at 
Emden  in  1571.  Persecution  might  drive  it  from  its 
land,  but  it  could  not  break  up  the  organization  of  a 
Calvin istic  Church.  These  refugee  churches  remained 
26 


394         THE   REFORMED   CHURCH   OF   GERMANY. 

in  Germany  until  1572,  when  the  Hollanders  began  re- 
turning to  their  own  land.  So  the  next  General  Synod 
was  held  at  Dort  in  1574.  The  president  of  this  synod 
was,  however,  from  Germany, — Heidanus,  a  pastor  in 
the  Palatinate.  The  General  Synod  of  Julich-Cleve- 
Berg  remained  in  connection  with  this  Dutch  General 
Synod  till  1610.  Olevianus  himself  was  present  at  the 
Dutch  General  Synod  at  Middleburg  in  1581.  The  de- 
crees of  this  Middleburg  synod  had  a  marked  effect  on 
some  of  the  German  Churches,  especially  on  the  Nassau 
Reformed  Church. 

A  number  of  differences  early  began  to  appear  in 
this  Netherland  Church,  which  prepared  the  way  for 
the  synod  of  Dort.  These  dissensions  began  to  reveal 
themselves  as  early  as  the  synod  of  Dort,  in  1574.  One 
of  these  differences  was  the  same  as  appeared  in  the 
synod  of  Julich  and  Cleve, — the  difference  between  the 
secret  and  the  open,  national  churches  in  the  synod. 
The  refugee  churches,  which  had  sacrificed  all  for  the 
Gospel,  had  evolved  a  higher  spiritual  life  and  a  stricter 
church  discipline  than  the  laxer  Holland  congregations, 
who  had  remained  at  home.  When  the  refugees  came 
back  to  Holland,  they  began  to  find  fault  with  these 
national  churches,"  for  being  formal  in  piety  and  lax  in 
discipline.  This  distinction  between  secret  and  open 
churches,  instead  of  fading  out  as  they  settled  again  in 
Holland,  was  perpetuated.     For  these  secret  churches 


DISSENSIONS    IN    HOLT. AND.  395 

were  continued;  as  the  Belgian  or  French  refugees 
dared  not  yet  return  to  their  land.  So  they  continued 
to  exist  as  individual  churches  in  Holland,  and  became 
strict  in  theology  and  discipline,  in  contrast  with  the 
state  churches,  which  were  laxer  in  these  matters. 
There  was  also  a  difference  in  races.  These  refugee 
churches  were  composed  of  Walloons,  a  hot-blooded 
race,  who  were  very  tenacious  and  decided  in  their  ex- 
pression of  doctrine  or  duty  ;  while  the  Hollanders  were 
a  slower,  phlegmatic  race.  There  was  also  a  difference 
in  their  relations  to  the  state;  for  these  French  churches 
were  not  as  much  under  the  control  of  the  state  as  the 
Holland  churches. 

All  these  differences  among  the  various  congregations 
early  led  to  dissensions  on  two  points.  The  first  was 
in  regard  to  doctrine.  The  refugees  who  came  back 
from  Germany,  had  adopted  the  Belgic  Confession  and 
were  strict  Calvinists.  The  ministers  who  preached  for 
the  Walloon  churches,  were  educated  mainly  at  Geneva, 
under  Calvin  ;  while  the  Holland  churches  rather  inclined 
to  Lasco,  who  was  not  quite  so  high  a  Calvinist  in  doc- 
trine. Indeed  there  were  followers  of  Zwingli  who  were 
early  found  in  Holland.  The  followers  of  Calvin  were 
inclined  to  be  strict  and  stiff  in  doctrine,  while  the  fol- 
lowers of  Zwingli  were  inclined  to  a  more  liberal  inter- 
pretation of  doctrine. 

A  second  difference  that  early  revealed  itself  was  in 
church  government.     Some  wanted  the  state  to  govern 


396         THE    REFORMED    CHURCH    OF   GERMANY. 

the  Church,  others  wanted  the  Church  to  be  independent 
of  the  state.  By  law,  each  of  the  seven  provinces  had 
the  right  to  control  its  own  religious  affairs.*  Those 
who  had  been  refugees,  declared  that  the  congregations 
were  under  the  control  of  the  classes  and  synods,  and  not 
under  the  state.  The  other  party  favored  a  modified 
Erastianism,  by  which  the  state  controlled  the  Church. 

These  were  the  small  differences,  which  widened  until 
ultimately  a  great  division  revealed  itself  in  the  Church. 
For  while  the  Dutch  Church  was  thus  in  the  stage  of 
formation  and  fermentation,  there  appeared  a  man  des- 
tined to  develop  the  germs  of  dissension.  This  was 
Jacob  Arminius. 

Arminius  was  born  in  1560,  and  was  educated  under 
strict  Reformed  influences  at  Utrecht,  Marburg,  Leyden 
and  Geneva.  In  1588  his  popularity  as  a  preacher  had 
gained  him  such  fame  that  he  was  appointed  one  of  the 
ministers  of  Amsterdam.  While  pastor  there,  it  seems 
that  some  ministers  at  Delft  had  publicly  opposed  predes- 
tination in  a  tract  which  adopted  a  milder  view  of  the 
doctrine.  Lydius,  professor  at  Franeker  (the  leader  of 
the  high  Calvinists  of  Holland),  having  a  high  opinion  of 
Arminius,  asked  him  to  refute  this  tract  of  Koornhurst. 
But  Arminius,  instead  of  refuting  it,  adopted  it,  and  in 
1591  he  began  preaching  against  high  Calvinism.    Still, 

■*Prince  William  of  Orange  was  at  the  head  of  the  party,  who 
urged  the  greatest  independence  of  the  church. 


HETERODOXY   OF    ARMINIUS.  397 

in  spite  of  his  suspected  heterodoxy,  when  Junius,  pro- 
fessor of  theok)gy  at  Leyden,  died  in  1602,  Arminius 
was  elected  to  that  position.  His  name  was  suggested 
for  the  place  by  Utenbogardus,  the  French  preacher  at 
The  Hague,  who  sympathized  with  Arminius.  But  when 
his  call  to  the  professorship  was  laid  before  the  Classis  of 
Amsterdam,  that  body  refused  to  put  it  into  his  hands 
or  to  dismiss  him,  until  he  had  proved  that  he  was  or- 
thodox and  Calvinistic  in  his  belief.  At  length  he  was 
permitted  to  be  dismissed,  provided  he  would  hold  a 
conference  with  Gomarus,  one  of  the  professors  at  Ley- 
den, and  thus  remove  from  himself  the  odor  of  heter- 
odoxy. In  this  conference  he  solemnly  disavowed  the 
errors  charged  against  him,  and  promised  to  teach  noth- 
ing contrary  to  the  doctrines  of  the  Church.  But  he 
had  not  occupied  his  professor's  chair  long,  before  ru- 
mors appeared  against  him — that  his  scholars  were  in- 
clined to  a  new  and  laxer  theology.  He  has  even  been 
charged  with  giving  utterance  to  one  set  of  opinions 
while  lecturing  officially  as  professor,  and  of  circulating 
confidentially  among  his  pupils  a  private  manuscript 
which  taught  different  doctrines.  These  rumors  became 
so  numerous  against  him,  that  the  magistrates  of  Leyden 
called  him  to  appear  before  them.  But  he  refused  to 
come,  because,  he  said,  the  directors  of  the  university 
had  not  given  him  permission.  They  did  not  do  so  be- 
cause they  were  in  sympathy  with  him.     The  classis  of 


398         THE    REFORMED    CHURCH    OF    GERMANY. 

Dort  placed  a  complaint  before  the  provincial  synod  of 
Leyden  against  him,  but  the  directors  of  the  university 
answered  it  by  saying  that  while  the  students  were  in- 
clined to  dispute  with  each  other  on  doctrine,  it  was  not 
the  professors'  fault  that  they  did  so.  The  deputies  then 
asked  that  the  professors  be  required  to  sign  anew  the 
Belgic  confession,  but  the  directors  declared  that  that 
was  not  necessary.  As  they  were  pressed  to  take  some 
action  in  the  matter,  the  directors  answered  that  it  would 
be  better  to  let  matters  rest  until  a  national  synod  was 
called.  Thus,  though  attempts  were  made  to  bring  Ar- 
minius'  case  before  the  church  courts,  the  matter  was 
always  evaded.  Armiuius  was  never  ready.  But  in 
the  meantime  he  was  imbuing  the  minds  of  his  scholars 
with  doctrines  prejudicial  to  orthodoxy. 

And  now  there  appeared  another  difference  between 
the  ministers  of  the  Netherland  Church,  which  revealed 
the  growing  spirit  of  Arminiauism.  The  Arminians 
wanted  the  Heidelberg  catechism  and  the  Belgic  confess- 
ion, the  creeds  of  the  Church,  to  be  revised.  They  claimed 
that  as  these  were  framed  by  fallible  men,  they  should 
be  subject  to  revision,  so  as  to  meet  the  spirit  of  the 
times  and  of  theological  inquiry.  But  the  Calvinistic 
party  opposed  any  revision  very  bitterly.  They  held 
that  while  these  creeds  were  not  equal  to  the  Bible  in 
authority,  yet  they  were  authoritative,  as  they  had  been 
adopted  by  the  Church  ;   and  ought,   therefore,  to  be 


SUBSCRIPTION   TO   CREEDS.  399 

signed  by  all  candidates  at  their  entrance  on  the  min- 
istry. The  Arminians  urged  that  the  Church  needed  a 
creed  framed  not  in  theological,  but  in  Biblical  lan- 
guage— that  the  creed  should  be  drawn  up  with  refer- 
ence to  practical  life,  while  liberty  should  be  allowed 
for  speculation  in  doctrine.  It  was  the  question  of 
the  revision  of,  and  subscription  to,  creeds,  which 
was  now  beginning  to  loom  up  in  church  history. 
Had  the  views  of  the  Arminians  prevailed,  they  would 
have  wrecked  the  faith  of  the  Church,  just  as  lax  sub- 
scription did  the  Presbyterian  Church  of  England  in 
the  last  century,  and  as  it  has  done  in  Holland  in  this 
century. 

In  the  meantime  dissensions  between  the  Arminians 
and  Calvinists  broke  out  here  and  there  in  different  parts 
of  the  Church.  The  controversy  which  had  at  first  been 
carried  on  in  Latin,  and  been  confined  to  the  learned, 
soon  got  to  the  ears  of  the  common  people.  The  classis 
of  Alcmar  resolved  that  all  its  ministers  should  sign  the 
Heidelberg  catechism,  and  the  Belgic  Confession.  Five 
ministers,  who  refused  to  do  so,  were  suspended  by  the 
classis.  These  ministers  then  appealed  to  the  state  au- 
thorities to  reinstate  them.  This  brought  up  the  ques- 
tion how  far  the  state  had  authority  to  control  the  Church. 
The  Arminians  naturally  favored  state  authority,  while 
the  Calvinists  opposed  it.  The  state  of  Holland  ordered 
that  while  an  investigation  was  in  progress,  the  minis- 


400         THE   REFORMED   CHURCH   OF   GERMANY. 

ters  be  allowed  to  perform  their  functions.  This  was 
contrary  to  all  church  law.  The  classis  declared  that 
the  state  had  no  right  to  interfere,  and  the  synod  of  North 
Holland  upheld  the  classis.  The  result  was  that  the 
state  authorities  could  do  nothing  to  secure  the  return  of 
these  ministers  to  their  positions.  Thus  another  diflPer- 
ance  begins  to  appear  between  the  Arminians  and  the 
Calvinists.  The  Arminians  believed  in  the  union  of 
state  and  Church.  The  Calvinists  believed  in  the  auton- 
omy of  the  Church  and  her  independence  of  the  state  in 
the  management  of  her  own  affairs.  It  was  the  old  ques- 
tion whether  the  Church*  should  be  the  servant  of  the 
state,  or  the  state  the  servant  of  the  Church.  The  old 
difference  between  Zwinglianism  and  Calvinism  in 
church  government  arose  again.  The  battle  between 
Erastus  and  Olevianus  had  to  be  fought  over  again  in 
Holland.  Laxity  of  doctrine  and  discipline  are  always 
followed  by  low  views  of  the  Church.  The  Arminians 
were  the  first  to  appeal  to  the  civil  power  for  help* 
Afterward,  at  the  Synod  of  Dort,  they  were  the  first  to 
suffer  from  the  civil  authorities.  Like  the  Donatists, 
they  appealed  to  the  very  power  that  condemned  them. 
They  were  the  first  to  propose  waiting  for  a  national 
synod.  But  it  was  their  enemies  who  arranged  for  the 
synod  and  carried  it  out.  '  Their  enemies  used  their 
weapons  against  them.  The  Arminians  had  the  aid  of 
the  civil  authorities  at  first.      They   had  the  ear  of  the 


THE   REMONSTRANCE.  401 

States  General  of  Holland,  which  finally  ordered  a  con- 
ference between  Gomarus  and  Arminius,  on  the  14th  of 
May,  1608.  In  this  conference  Arminius  wanted  Go- 
marus to  appear  as  complainant  against  him,  and  desired 
that  the  States  General  should  be  his  judges.  He  was 
thus  sure  of  his  vindication,  as  the  States  General  were 
friendly  to  him.  But  Gomarus  declared  that  a  national 
synod  alone  could  decide.  The  conference  indeed  took 
place,  at  The  Hague  in  1609,  but  Arminius  died  before 
it  ended,  on  the  19th  of  October,  1609. 

But  his  cause  did  not  die  with  him.  The  strife  only 
increased.  After  his  death,  Armiuianism  more  fully 
developed  itself.  Arminius  at  first  probably  meant 
that  he  did  not  believe  in  unconditional  election  or  a 
limited  atonement,  but  by  the  time  of  his  death  he  had 
far  passed  these  limits.  After  his  death,  his  disciples, 
led  by  Episcopius,  passed  the  limits  of  his  belief.  The 
result  was  that  in  1610  the  Arminians  organized  them- 
selves into  a  party  in  the  Church,  and  presented  to  the 
two  states  of  Holland  and  Friesland  an  address  consist- 
ing of  five  articles,  which  was  called  a  Remonstrance. 
It  was  drawn  up  by  Utenbogardus,  and  signed  by  forty- 
six  ministers.  Their  aim,  in  presenting  this  remon- 
strance to  the  civil  authorities,  was  to  gain  the  favor  of 
the  government  and  to  secure  its  protection  against  the 
censure  of  the  Church,  to  which  they  were  exposed. 
After   this,   from   this    remonstrance,    the    Arminians 


402         THE   REFORMED   CHURCH    OF   GERMANY. 

were  called  Reaionstrants.  The  Calvinists  afterwards 
prepared  a  counter  Remonstrance,  which  revealed  the 
five  points  of  Calvinism.  The  Synod  of  Dort  in  1616 
gave  such  a  deliverance.* 

And  now  another  difficulty  arose.  The  authorities 
of  the  university  of  Leyden  chose  as  successor  to  Ar- 
minius  the  learned  Vorstius,  professor  at  Steinfurt  in 
Germany.  But  Vorstius  had  already  been  charged 
with  the  heresy  of  Socinianism.  The  Arminians  had 
by  this  time  so  far  declined  from  orthodoxy  as  to  elect 
such  a  man.  The  professors  at  Heidelberg  university 
at  once  sent  a  protest  against  Vorstius,  calling  attention 
to  his  heresy.  They  said  that  to  call  him  into  the 
already  fermenting  Netherland  Church  would  be  like 
extinguishing  fire  by  pouring  on  oil.  But  the  greatest 
foe  of  Vorstius  appeared  in  King  James  I.  of  England. 
James  prided  himself  on  the  title  (given  to  him  at  that 
time)  of  '^  the  defender  of  the  faith."  He  had  read 
Vorstius'  book  concerning  the  nature  of  God,  and  he 
demanded  the  recall  of  his  election  to  Leyden.  He 
boiled  over  with  indignation,  and  threatened  to  break 
off  all  confederacy    with   Holland,  if  such  a  man   were 

*"  While  this  synod  declines  to  give  an  express  sanction  to  the 
supralapsarian  views  of  Gomarus,  it  declares  its  judgment  in 
opposition  to  the  Arminians,  and  puts  foi  th  by  way  of  antithe- 
sis what  have  been  called  the  five  points  of  Calvinism— uncon- 
ditional election,  limited  atonement,  impotency  of  the  w^ill,  ir- 
resistible grace  and  perseverance  of  the  saints."  Fisher's  His- 
tory of  the  Reformation,  473. 


COxNTINUED    DISSENSIONS.  403 

allowed  to  teach  such  heresy.  Some  one  says  that 
James  io  this  matter  showed  the  only  ebullitiou  of  valor 
he  was  ever  known  to  betray.  He  threatened,  not  only 
to  write,  but  to  fight,  if  Vorstius  were  allowed  to  stay 
in  Holland.  The  election  of  Vorstius  was  the  first 
mistake  of  the  Remonstrants,  and  his  dismissal  their 
first  defeat.  For  in  calling  him,  they  made  enemies  of 
the  Reformed  theologians  of  Germany,  and  they  felt 
this  hostility  of  the  Germans  afterwards  in  the  synod 
of  Dort.  But  although  Vorstius  was  not  permitted  to 
accept  the  position,  Episcopius,  the  leader  of  the  Remon- 
strants, was  elected  to  the  professorship  ;  so  that  they  vir- 
tually gained  what  they  desired — liberty  to  teach  their 
doctrines. 

In  the  meantime  dissensions  arose  everywhere  in  Hol- 
land between  the  Remonstrants  and  the  Calvinists.  The 
Remonstrants  appealed  to  the  civil  authorities  to  help 
them  against  the  Calvinists.  Geselius,  a  minister  of  Rot- 
terdam and  a  Calvinist,  as  he  could  not  consort  with  the 
Remonstrants,  began  holding  meetings  in  the  villages 
around.  So  the  city  authorities,  instigated  by  the  Re- 
monstrants, banished  him  from  the  villages.  Roseus, 
for  refusing  to  commune  or  preach  with  the  Remon- 
strants, was  suspended.  He  then  preached  in  the  vil- 
lages, and  afterwards  in  The  Hague,  in  a  church,  which 
was  attended  by  Prince  Maurice  of  Orange  and  other 
leaders.     The  Remonstrants  called    this   act   of  Roseus 


404         THE   REFORMED   CHURCH    OF   GERMANY. 

schism.  The  Calvinists  werefiued,  imprisoned  and  ban- 
ished, and  when  they  appealed,  the  Remonstrants  inter- 
dicted the  appeal.  Orthodox  preachers  were  driven  away, 
as  at  Cambden.  The  Calvinists  have  been  charged  with 
persecuting  in  this  controversy,  but  they  do  not  seem  to 
have  begun  the  persecution,  nor  did  they  persecute  as 
much  as  the  Remonstrants  did.  The  Remonstrants  were 
pushing  their  schemes,  so  as  to  gain  the  control  of  the 
whole  land,  when  suddenly  affairs  took  a  different  turn. 
The  Remonstrants  had  almost  gained  the  day,  when  a 
breach  took  place  between  Barneveld  and  Prince  Mau- 
rice. Maurice  was  aristocratic  and  hoped  to  see  his  house, 
the  family  of  Orange  and  its  heirs,  at  the  head  of  the 
government.  Barneveld  was  a  republican  and  aimed  at 
preserving  the  authority  of  the  states  against  Maurice. 
Maurice  now  threw  his  fortunes  actively  with  the  Cal- 
vinists. He  said  :  "  I  know  no  predestination.  To  me 
it  is  the  same,  whether  it  is  gray  or  blue.  But  this  I 
know,  that  between  Barneveld's  piping  and  my  own, 
there  is  a  shrieking  discord.'^  The  family  of  Orange  had 
always  been  closely  allied  to  Calvinism,  and  Maurice,  in 
thus  taking  up  their  cause,  was  only  treading  in  the 
footsteps  of  William  the  Silent.  But  he  also  saw  in  this 
religious  controversy,  an  opportunity  by  which  he  might 
overthrow  his  opponent,  Barneveld.  So  while  Barne- 
veld had  been  aiding  the  Remonstrants,  Maurice  threw 
in  his  fortunes  with  the  Calvinists.     And  thus  political 


MAURICE    AIDS   THE    CALVINISTS.  405 

strife  was  added  to  theological.  Thus  the  arm  of  the 
state,  which  the  Remonstrants  had  called  to  their  aid, 
was  now  used  against  them  to  their  fall.  As  Amster- 
dam, Dort  and  other  places,  opposed  Barneveld^s  tolera- 
tion edict,  Maurice  aided  them.  Thus  the  whole  of  the 
Netherlands  was  in  commotion,  citizen  against  citizen, 
city  against  city.  The  common  people,  the  ministers, 
the  ecclesiastical  organizations  of  classes  and  synods  were 
on  the  side  of  the  Calvinists.  The  educated  people,  the 
magistrates  of  the  cities,  and  the  senates  of  several  of  the 
provinces  were  Remonstrant.  Maurice  prohibited  his 
troops  from  aiding  the  city  magistrates  in  quelling  re- 
ligious disturbances.  This  was  a  move  by  Maurice  to 
aid  the  Calvinists  ;  for  it  deprived  the  Remonstrants  of 
the  use  of  the  troops  in  order  to  oppress  the  Calvinists. 
The  Remonstrant  city  authorities  then  became  suspicious 
of  Maurice  and  levied  city  troops  to  aid  the  magistrates. 
They  did  this  at  Utrecht,  where  there  was  already  a  gar- 
rison sufficient  for  defense,  and  also  at  Harlem,  Leyden, 
Rotterdam  and  elsewhere.  They  thus  seemed  to  be 
forming  a  body  of  troops  against  the  troops  of  the  na- 
tional government,  who  were  under  Maurice's  com- 
mand. Prince  Maurice  then  became  persuaded  that  this 
levy  of  city  troops  was  for  the  purpose  of  annihilating 
his  authority  ;  so  he  began  to  change  the  city  officials,  so 
that  they  might  give  him  control  of  the  cities.  He  thus 
aided  the  Calvinists. 


406         THE   REFORMED    CHURCH    OF   GERMANY. 

The  provinces  of  Zeeland,  Friesland  and  Groningen 
were  entirely  Calvinistic ;  Guelderland  and  Oberyssel 
were  two-thirds  Calvinistic,  Holland  one-third  Calvin- 
istic, and  Utrecht  entirely  Remonstrant.  The  first  three 
provinces  demanded  a  national  synod,  to  settle  the  dis- 
sensions, and  bring  peace  and  unity  to  the  land.  (The 
Calvinists  had  all  along  appealed  to  the  Church,  and 
not  the  state,  for  the  final  decision.)  And  now  we  see 
the  subterfuges  of  the  Remonstrants.  They  at  first 
wanted  a  synod  to  be  called,  so  as  to  settle  the  disputes. 
But  now  they  protest  against  it.  Two  provinces,  Hol- 
land and  Oberyssel,  protested  against  a  synod.  But  in 
spite  of  their  protests,  the  remaining  provinces  decided 
it  should  be  held.  They  declared  that  the  objects  for 
which  the  synod  was  held,  were — first,  to  examine  into 
the  exact  teachings  of  the  Remonstrants  ;  second,  to  an- 
swer them,  and  also  to  give  a  deliverance  as  to  what 
was  the  true  Reformed  faith  ;  third,  to  sentence  those 
who  might  be  guilty  of  heresy.  The  place  chosen  for 
the  holding  of  the  synod  was  Dort,  a  city  of  sacred  as- 
sociations, where  the  first  national  synod  had  been  held 
after  the  return  of  the  refugees  from  Germany.  They 
at  first  intended  to  hold  a  synod  of  only  the  Netherland 
churches,  but  at  the  suggestion  of  King  James  I.  of 
England,  they  determined  to  invite  foreign  delegates  to 
it.  They  did  this  the  more  willingly,  as  the  Remon- 
strants did  not  seem  to  pay  any  attention   to  the  au- 


FOREIGN   CHURCHES   INVITED.  407 

thority  of  the  Netherland  synods,  for  they  said  these 
were  not  true  Reformed  synods.  The  presence  and  ad- 
vice of  the  foreign  Reformed  delegates  would  give 
weight  to  the  decisions  of  the  synod  ;  and  would  also 
reveal  whether  the  Netherland  Church  was  a  true  Re- 
formed Church.  So  the  States  General  invited  the 
Reformed  Churches  of  England  and  Scotland,  France, 
the  Palatinate,  Brandenberg,  Hesse,  Nassau,  East  Fries- 
land,  the  four  Swiss  cantons  of  Berne,  Zurich,  Basle  and 
Schaffhausen,  the  Wetterau  counties  of  Nassau  and 
Hanau,  and  the  free  cities  of  Geneva,  Bremen  and  Em- 
den,  to  send  delegates  to  the  synod.  Anhalt  was  not 
invited,  as  the  Hollanders  seemed  to  doubt  whether  she 
was  orthodox  enough  on  the  Reformed  faith.  The  synod 
of  Dort  was  really  a  national  synod  of  the  Netherlands  ; 
but  the  foreign  deputies  advised  and  voted  with  the  na- 
tive members.  All  of  the  states  and  cities  invited  sent 
delegates,  except  France  and  Brandenberg.  The  dele- 
gates of  France,  Chauve  du  Moulin,  professor  at  Sedan, 
Rivet,  Chaniier,  professor  at  Montauban,  were  on  the 
way  to  the  synod,  when  an  order  from  King  Louis 
XIII.  of  France  compelled  them  to  return  ;  as  he  did 
not  want  them  to  form  any  union  with  foreign  Re- 
formed Churches  that  might  strengthen  them  in  his  own 
land.  The  invitation  to  Brandenberg  was  sent  later 
than  to  the  rest.  The  Elector  of  Brandenberg,  who  had 
recently  come  into  the  Reformed  Church,  was  very  anx- 


408         THE    REFORMED    CHURCH    OF   GERMANY. 

ious  to  be  represented  at  the  synod,  so  as  to  reveal  his 
adherence  to  the  Reformed  faith.  He  appointed  Pelar- 
gus  and  Bergius,  his  professors  at  Frankford,  as  his. 
delegates.  But  they  did  not  go.  Pelargus  declined, 
because  of  his  age,  and  because  the  near  approach  of 
winter  made  travelling  dangerous.  Bergius  declined, 
because  Pelargus  refused,  and  also  because  of  the  late- 
ness of  the  invitation.  It  has  also  been  suggested  that 
they  did  not  go  to  Dort,  for  fear  of  offending  the  Lu- 
theran people  of  Brandenberg,  who  had  already  shown 
their  fanaticism  by  riots.  But  though  these  delegates 
did  not  arrive,  there  were  twenty-eight  foreign  delegates 
present.  Prominent  among  them  were  Scultetus,  the 
court  preacher  of  the  Elector  of  the  Palatinate,  and 
Breitinger,  the  successor  of  Zwingli  at  Zurich,  as  well 
as  the  Bishop  of  Llandaff  of  England.* 

There  were  present  at  the  synod  three  Palatines — 
Scultetus,  Tossanus,  and  Alting,  professor  of  Heidelberg 
university ;  four  Hessians — Stein,  the  court  preacher  of 
Landgrave  Maurice ;  Cruciger,  rector  of  the  university 
of  Marburg  ;  Angelocrater,  and  Goclenius,  professor  at 

*We  thus  see  that  the  bishops  of  the  Anglican  Church  recog- 
nized the  Reformed  Church  of  the  continent  (which  had  no  bish- 
ops) as  a  true  Church  of  Christ,  and  as  a  sister  Reformed  Church. 
Those  Episcopalian  bishops  sat  with  ordinary  ministers  as 
equals,  a  significant  and  severe  hint  to  the  high  church  Episco- 
palians of  our  day.  Bishop  Hall  of  England  said  in  his  Ireni- 
con  :  "  Blessed  be  God,  there  is  no  difference  on  any  essential 
point  between  the  Church  of  England  and  her  sister  Reformed 
Churches." 


FOREIGN   DELEGATES.  409 

Marburg;    five   Swiss — Breitinger,    antistes  at  Zurich  ; 
Rutimeyer  of  Berne,    Beck  and   Mayer  of  Basle,  and 
Koch  of  Schaffhausen  ;    three    from    Nassau — Alsted, 
professor  at  Herborn  ;  Bisterfield,  of  Siegen  ;  Fabricius, 
of  Hanau  ;  two  from  Geneva — Deodati  and  Tronchin, 
professors  of  theology  ;  three  from  Bremen — Martinius, 
professor  of  theology  in  the  gymnasium  ;  Isselberg  and 
Crocius  ;    two  from   Emden — Eilsheim   and    Grimers- 
heim.     The  English   delegates  chosen  by   King   James 
I.  were — Carleton,  bishop  of  Llandaff ;  Davenant,  after- 
wards bishop  of  Salisbury  ;  Samuel    Ward,   afterwards 
professor  at  Cambridge ;  Joseph  Hall,  afterwards  bish- 
op of  Exeter  and  Norwich  (bishop  Hall  had  to  return 
before  the  close  of  the  synod,  on  account  of  ill  health. 
His  place  was  filled  by  Thomas  Goad,  of  St.  Paul's  ca- 
thedral, London) ;  and  Walter  Balcanquall,  the  Scotch 
chaplain   of  the   King,    who   represented    the    Scotch 
Churches.     The  Dutch  delegates  included  such  men  as 
Professors  Polyander,  Lubertus,  and  Gomarus. 

There  were  altogether  eighty-four  delegates,  of 
whom  twenty-eight  were  foreigners,  thirty  six  were 
ministers  of  Holland,  and  the  rest  Dutch  elders.  There 
were  also  eighteen  commissioners  of  the  States  General 
of  Holland  present  at  each  of  the  sessions,  to  see  that 
the  business  was  properly  transacted,  and  to  note  the 
decisions  of  the  synod.  Each  provincial  synod  elected 
six  delegates,  of  whom  two  were  elders.  The  French 
27 


410         THE   REFORMED   CHURCH   OF   GERMANY. 

churches  scattered  through  the  Netherlands,  who  formed 
a  synod  of  their  own,  did  as  the  provincial  synods  had 
done — elected  six  delegates.  (The  president  and  secre- 
tary of  the  various  synods  were  generally  chosen  among 
the  delegates.)  In  the  province  of  Utrecht  there  were 
only  five  Calvinistic  ministers.  They  formed  a  synod 
of  their  own  and  elected  two  delegates,  leaving  the  Re- 
monstrants of  that  province  to  elect  the  rest  of  the  rep- 
resentatives. Only  three  Remonstrants  were  elected  to 
the  synod  by  all  the  synods  of  the  Netherlands.  After 
a  day  of  prayer  throughout  all  the  land,  the  synod  of 
Dort  opened  on  the  13th  of  November,  1618.  It  was 
opened  with  divine  service  at  8  A.  M.,  in  both  the 
Dutch  and  the  French  languages.  Lydius,  the  Dutch 
minister  of  Dort,  preached  in  the  great  church  on  the 
synod  at  Jerusalem.  Pours  of  Middleburg  preached  to 
the  French  in  the  Augustine's  church.  After  the  ser- 
mon, the  delegates  withdrew  to  the  Doel,  a  guild  hall, 
which  was  used  for  public  meetings,  although  it  had 
originally  been  built  to  be  a  drill  hall.*     The  first  ses- 

*See  picture  of  Synod  of  Dort.  The  officers  of  the  synod  sat 
at  a  centre  table  at  the  upper  end  of  the  room,  the  president 
with  his  face  to  the  door,  the  vice-presidents  at  his  right,  the 
secretaries  at  his  left.  Along  the  side  of  the  room,  to  the  right 
of  the  president,  and  to  the  left  of  the  picture,  were  the  commis- 
sioners of  the  States  General.  Opposite  them,  to  the  left  of  the 
president,  were  the  British  delegates ;  then  the  vacant  seats  as- 
signed to  the  French  delegates.  In  the  next  tier  of  seats  were 
the  Swiss,  Hessian  and  Palatinate  delegates  occupying  the 
three  seats  in  the  order  named.  In  the  next  tier  of  seats,  to  the 
left  of  the  president  and  nearer  the  entrance,  were  the  Bremen, 
the  Genevan,  and  then  the  Wetterau  delegates,  occupying  the 


ORGANIZATION    OF   THE   SYNOD.  411 

sion  was  opened  by  an  address  of  welcome  by  Lydius. 
For  the  sake  of  the  foreign  delegates,  the  Latin  lan- 
guage was  used,  which  was  rather  a  trial  to  the  state's 
commissioners,  and  to  some  of  the  elders,  who  under- 
stood only  Dutch.  The  synod,  through  the  influence  of 
Count  Lewis  of  Nassau,  a  strict  Calvinist,  elected  Bo- 
german  of  Leuwaarden  as  president,  and  also  elected 
two  vice-presidents  and  two  secretaries.  The  commis- 
sioners of  the  States  General  also  had  their  own  presi- 
dent, Gregory,  and  secretary.  On  all  questions  the  vote 
was  taken  by  provinces.  The  rule  of  judgment  was  or- 
dered to  be  the  Bible.  The  Belgic  Confession  was  not 
made  the  norm  of  judgment,  as  some  have  held  ;  but 
the  Bible.  The  first  session  was  taken  up  in  receiving 
the  credentials  and  administering  the  oath  to  the  mem- 
bers. The  chief  question  before  the  body  was  the  re- 
lation of  the  Remonstrants  to  the  synod.     There  were 


three  seats  in  the  order  named.  On  the  right  of  the  president, 
and  in  the  tier  of  seats  opposite  to  the  Bremen  delegates,  but 
along  the  wail,  were  the  five  theological  professors  of  the  Nether- 
lands. The  rest  of  the  seats  were  occupied  by  the  delegates  from 
the  Netherlands  in  the  order  of  the  rank  of  their  provinces.  The 
Remonstrants,  when  they  appeared  before  the  synod,  had  their 
seats  at  a  centre  table  in  the  middle  of  the  room,  just  in  front  of 
the  president's  table.  Each  delegate  found  at  his  seat  a  pen  and 
a  candle,  the  former  for  the  purpose  of  taking  notes,  the  latter 
for  light;  for  in  winter  the  days  are  very  short  in  Holland,  and 
the  sessions  of  the  synod  were  often  protracted  until  after  it  was 
dark.  It  is  a  very  quaint  looking  assembly  as  revealed  by  the 
picture.  The  sessions  were  public,  except  when  the  doors  were 
closed  for  secret  session.  There  was  usually  quite  a  crowd  of 
spectators  standing  near  the  door,  among  them  even  Jesuits. 


412         THE    REFORMED    CHURCH    OF   GERMANY. 

only  three  Remonstrant  delegates  ;  but  the  smallness  of 
their  number  was  largely  their  own  fault.  They  had 
not  only  labored  to  prevent  the  synod  ;  but,  as  for  in- 
stance in  the  synod  at  Delft,  they  had  declared  they 
would  not  send  delegates  to  it.  At  the  fourth  session, 
the  synod  decided  to  cite  thirteen  of  the  Remonstrants 
(Episcopius  among  them),*  to  appear  before  them  within 
fourteen  days,  that  they  might  explain  their  views  and 
prove  the  five  Remonstrant  articles,  in  which  they  dif- 
fered from  the  rest  of  the  Church. 

Until  the  appearance  of  the  thirteen  Remonstrants, 
the  synod  was  not  idle,  but  busied  itself  about  matters  of 
importance  for  the  Church.  A  new  translation  of  the 
Bible  was  ordered.  For  the  Dutch  Bible  at  that  time 
was  only  a  transfer  of  Luther^s  German  Bible  into  the 
Dutch  language — a  translation  of  a  translation  ;  and  so 
a  new  Bible  was  needed  to  purge  it  from  mistakes. f  A 
committee  of  six  theologians  was  appointed  to  complete 
and  perfect  the  translation,  which  finally  appeared  in 
1637.  It  was  a  master  piece ;  and  as  the  Staats  Bible,  it 
is  in  use  to-day  in  Holland.  The  synod  also  discussed 
the  subject  of  catechization.     The  representatives   from 

*These  persons  were  chosen  by  the  Remonstrants  in  the 
synod.  The  Remonstrants  in  the  synod,  instead  of  being  treated 
as  intruders  and  heretics,  had  their  rights,  as  members,  re- 
spected. 

fThis  Dutch  Bible  was  begun  in  1594,  by  Van  Marnix,  Lord 
of  St.  Aldegonde.  Owing  to  the  severity  of  Catholics  against 
Bible  translations,  it  was  printed  in  a  ship. 


EPISCOPIUS    APPEARS.  413 

foreign  lands  described  how  catechization  was  carried  on 
in  their  own  countries.  The  last  Netherland  synod  had 
ordered  catechetical  preaching,  but  it  had  only  been  par- 
tially carried  out.  This  synod  urged  greater  attention 
on  the  part  of  parents,  teachers  and  pastors  to  catechiza- 
tion, especially  for  three  or  four  weeks  before  a  commun- 
ion season.  The  baptism  of  heathen  children,  the  pre- 
paration of  candidates  for  the  ministry  and  the  abuses  of 
printing  were  then  discussed. 

In  the  twenty-second  session,  about  the  first  of  De- 
cember, Episcopius  and  the  Remonstrants  appeared.  As 
most  of  them  had  opposed  the  synod,  it  was  doubted 
at  Dort  whether  they  would  appear  at  all ;  so  their  com- 
ing made  quite  a  sensation.  When  they  appeared,  it 
seems  that  Episcopius,  without  waiting  for  the  proper 
formalities,  proceeded  to  make  an  eloquent,  but  caustic 
address  against  those  who  had  opposed  the  Remonstrants. 
For  his  boldness  he  was  severely  rebuked  by  the  presi- 
dent. The  Remonstrants  were  asked  to  submit  their 
theological  opinions  to  the  synod.  They  wanted  the  ref- 
utation of  Calvinism  to  be  taken  up  first,  and  then  the 
statement  of  their  belief.  The  synod  very  properly  or- 
dered the  opposite.  They  hoped  that  by  taking  up  rep- 
robation first,  they  might  excite  the  sympathy  of  the 
foreign  delegates.  They  then  asked  for  time  to  prepare, 
but  their  request  was  not  granted,  as  they  already  had 
had  all  the  time  they  needed    for    preparation.     At  the 


414         THE    REFORMED   CHURCH    OF    GERMANY. 

twenty-fifth  session,  the  Remonstrants  asked  that  only 
the  foreigners  might  sit  as  their  judges,  as  this  national 
synod  was  schismatic.  (They  visited  the  foreign  delegates 
diligently,  hoping  to  enlist  them  on  their  side.  Episco- 
pius  with  two  others,  visited  the  Bishop  of  Llandaff  on 
the  25th  of  January,  hoping  to  incline  him  to  them. 
He  refused  to  listen  to  them,  and  told  them  they  should 
not  build  their  hopes  on  men,  but  on  the  worthiness  of 
their  cause.)  The  synod  answered  that  it  was  not  schis- 
matic, but  was  constituted  in  the  regularly  appointed 
way  by  the  election  of  delegates  from  each  of  the  synods. 
The  synod  tried  to  get  them  to  express  their  doctrinal 
opinions  in  writing.  But  the  Remonstrants  again  and 
again  postponed  doing  so.  Finally,  though  still  pro- 
testing against  the  authority  of  the  synod,  they  gave  their 
opinion  against  the  five  points  of  Calvinism.  The  synod 
then  demanded  of  them  a  declaration  concerning  the 
Heidelberg  catechism  and  the  Belgic  confession.  They 
were  allowed  four  days  in  which  to  prepare  their  reply. 
They  replied  that  these  standards  of  the  Church  needed 
revision.  When  they  made  this  suggestion,  the  Palati- 
nate delegates  rose  up  in  defense  of  their  favorite,  the 
Heidelberg  catechism,  and  bitterly  opposed  any  change  in 
it.  And  to  the  Palatines  the  commissioners  of  the  States 
General  joined  their  voices.  In  the  fifty -seventh  ses- 
sion the  Remonstrants  were  dismissed,  but  were  ordered 
not  to  leave  Dort  until  synod  rendered  a  decision. 


DIFFERENCES   IN   THE   SYNOD.  415 

Their  defense  having  been  made,  synod  then  pro- 
ceeded to  sit  in  judgment  on  the  Remonstrants  and  their 
doctrines.  The  synod  then  proceeded  to  a  consideration 
of  the  five  points  of  Calvinism,  so  as  to  answer  the  Re- 
monstrants and  pass  judgment  on  them.  In  the  sixty- 
first  session,  the  synod  decided  not  only  to  answer  the 
Remonstrants,  but  also  to  give  expression  to  decrees 
stating  the  orthodox  Calvinistic  doctrines.  The  re- 
mainder of  the  time,  from  the  17th  of  January  to  the 
23rd  of  April,  was  spent  in  the  preparation  of  the 
decrees.  But,  while  the  synod  was  unanimously  opposed 
to  the  doctrines  and  tactics  of  the  Remonstrants,  yet  they 
were  not  so  united  in  positive  statements  of  doctrine. 
There  was  so  much  difference  of  opinion  in  the  synod 
that  it  held  secret  sessions,  so  as  to  allow  a  fuller  inter- 
change of  opinion.  There  were  three  grades  of  Calvin- 
ism apparent  in  the  synod — supralapsariauism,  infralap- 
sarianism  and  sublapsarianism.* 

*The  dilfereuces  between  these  various  grades  of  Calvinism 
are  described  by  arranging  the  decrees  of  God  in  their  order  as 
given  by  these  different  schools  : — supralapsarian  :  election,  cre- 
ation, sin,  redemption,  reprobation;  infralapsarian :  creation, 
election,  sin,  redemption,  preterition ;  sublapsarian  :  creation, 
sin,  election,  redemption.  The  supralapsarian  held  that  election 
was  the  first  great  aim  of  all  things.  God  elected  men  in  order 
that  he  might  then  create  them  to  be  saved  or  lost,  as  he  pleased. 
The  infral-ipsarians  held  that  the  great  aim  of  God  was  creation, 
and  that  having  created  men,  God  then  chose  men  to  be  saved  or 
lost.  The  sublapsarians  held  that  the  great  aim  of  God  was  re- 
demption. They  especially  insisted  that  Christ's  atonement 
was  universal,  over  against  the  limited  atonement  views  of  the 
others,— that  Christ  died  for  all  men,  and  not  only  for  the  ele^'i. 


416         THE   REFORMED   CHURCH   OF   GERMANY. 

In  the  synod  there  was  a  small,  but  influential  party 
of  Supralapsarians,  led  by  Gomarus  and  the  president 
of  the  synod,  and  patronized  by  Count  Lewis  of  Nas- 
sau. The  great  body  of  the  Dutch  delegates  were  infra- 
lapsarian.  Many  of  the  foreign  delegates  were  sublap- 
sarian.  Gomarus  desired  that  the  synod  should  give 
expression  to  high  Calvinistic  decrees  as  the  doctrine  of 
the  Church.  This  brought  him  into  a  heated  argument 
with  Martinius,  who  wished  a  mild  expression  of  Cal- 
vinism. Ward  and  the  Palatinate  delegates  had  a  sim- 
ilar contest.  Martinius  with  the  Bremen  delegates,  the 
Nassau  deputies,  and  the  Hessian  members,  except 
Stein,  were  sublapsarian.  The  English  delegation  was 
divided.  The  Bishop  of  Llandaff,  Hall  and  Balcanquall 
were  infralapsarian,  but  Davenant  and  Ward  were  out- 
spoken Sublapsarians.  The  Palatinate,  Swiss  and 
Friesland  delegates  were  supralapsarian  or  infralapsa- 
rian. So  much  division  of  sentiment  was  revealed  in 
the  synod  that  finally  a  representative  commission  was 
appointed  to  draft  its  decrees.  This  commission  con- 
sisted of  the  president  with  three  Dutch  and  three  for- 
eign delegates.  On  this  commission  was  LlandaflF,  and 
probably  Breitinger.  From  the  25th  of  March  to  the 
16th  of  April  they  labored  at  this  matter.  They  drew 
up  the  decrees,  which  by  taking  the  middle  ground  of 
Infralapsarianism,  harmonized  all  differences,  and  were 
acceptable  to  all  parties  in  the  synod.  These  canons 
were  read  and  approved  in  the    136th   session.      They 


THE   CANONS   OF   DORT.  417 

were  then  signed  by  all  the  delegates.  It  is  perfectly 
evident,  as  all  parties  in  the  synod  were  willing  to  sign 
the  decrees,  that  liberty  was  allowed  in  the  interpreta- 
tion of  them.  Although  the  decrees  were  infralapsarian, 
yet  the  Sublapsarians  were  allowed  to  interpret  them 
according  to  their  views.  The  canons  of  Dort,  although 
they  are  strictly  Calvinistic,  allow  liberty  for  different 
grades  of  Calvinism. 

Nothing  now  remained  to  be  done,  but  to  pass  judg- 
ment on  the  Remonstrants.  The  English  and  Hessian 
delegates  were  not  in  favor  of  taking  any  action  against 
them  personally,  by  forbidding  them  to  preach  or  hold 
office  in  the  Netherlands.  They  claimed  that  the  con- 
demnation of  their  doctrines  was  sufficient,  and  that  there 
was  no  need  of  the  condemnation  of  their  persons.  But 
the  rest  of  the  synod  approved  of  the  condemnation  of 
the  Remonstrants.  The  synod,  therefore,  ordered  that 
the  Remonstrants  be  excommunicated  from  the  Church 
and  displaced  from  their  positions.  These  canons  of 
Dort,  with  the  acts  of  the  synod,  were  sent  to  the  States 
General,  and  ratified  by  them,  July  2,  1619.* 

♦The  original  manuscript  of  the  synod  of  Dort  is  in  the  pos- 
sion  of  the  States  General  of  Holland,  and  is  inspected  every 
three  years  by  deputies  chosen  for  that  purpose.  In  the  month 
of  May,  twenty-two  delegates  from  the  synod  repair  to  The 
Hague,  where  two  delegates  from  the  secular  government  meet 
them.  The  chest,  containing  the  decrees,  is  opened  by  eight 
different  keys  and  contains  the  acts  of  the  synod,  bound  in  sev- 
enteen volumes.  These  are  shown  to  the  delegates.  This  cere- 
mony is  preceded  and  followed  by  prayer,  after  which  the  re- 
presentatives dine  together. 


418         THE    REFORMED   CHURCH   OF   GERMANY. 

Ill  the  146-148th  sessions,  the  synod  endorsed  the 
Heidelberg  Catechism  and  the  Belgic  Confession.  As 
the  Remonstrants  had  raised  objections  to  the  Heidel- 
berg Catechism,  the  Palatinate  delegates  requested 
that  the  synod  should  examine  and  pass  its  decision 
upon  that  book.  All  the  questions  and  answers  were 
read  aloud  and  votes  taken  on  them.  This  led  to  a 
unanimous  endorsement,  except  that  the  English  dele- 
gates declared  they  did  not  agree  to  the  figurative  ex- 
planation of  Christ's  descent  into  hell  by  the  catechism. 
(The  synod  did  not  examine  the  objections  of  the  Re- 
monstrants to  the  catechism ;  but  left  it  to  the  Palatin- 
ate theologians  to  vindicate  their  book.) 

At  the  154th  session,  the  synod  repaired  to  the  great 
church  of  Dort,  where  the  canons  were  read  in  the  pres- 
ence of  a  large  audience,  and  a  sermon  preached  by 
liydius,  on  Isaiah  12  :  1-3.  A  final  meeting  was  then 
held,  at  which  the  States  General  thanked  the  delegates 
for  their  labors.  Then,  with  handshakings,  and  not 
without  tears,  the  members  of  the  synod  bade  each  other 
farewell.  Thus  ended  this  celebrated  synod.  It  was 
in  session  for  six  months,  from  the  13th  of  November, 
1618,  to  the  9th  of  May,  1619. 

The  synod  cost  the  states  of  Holland  500,000  dol- 
lars, or  one  million  gulden ;  the  Bishop  of  Llaudaff  re- 
ceiving eighteen  gulden  per  day.  It  was  an  expensive 
synod,  but  it  harmonized  the  Netherlands,  and  prepared 


MIRROR   OF   THE   GERMAN   CHURCH.  419 

them  for  their  later  struggles  for  liberty.  The  decrees 
of  the  synod  evidently  reveal  the  influence  of  the  for- 
eign delegates;  for  their  advice  and  their  votes  modified 
to  some  extent  the  ultra  position  and  bitter  personalities 
of  the  Netherlanders.  Their  influence  also  modified  the 
expression  of  Calvinism  in  the  decrees. 

This  synod  is  interesting  to  us,  because  it  revealed, 
as  in  a  mirror,  the  theological  position  of  the  Reformed 
Church  of  Germany.  For  the  leaders  of  the  German 
churches  were  there,  and  they  may  be  supposed  to  rep- 
resent the  religious  position  of  the  various  states  of  Ger- 
many. Bremen  under  Martinius,  Marburg  under  Go- 
clenius,  and  Herborn  under  Piscator,  were  sublapsarian, 
and  believed  in  the  universality  of  the  atonement ; 
while  Heidelberg,  Friesland,  and  the  lower  Rhine,  to- 
gether with  German  and  French  Switzerland,  were  high 
Calvinists.  Thus  high  Calvinism  had  attained  a  place 
in  Germany,  though  not  a  place  in  her  creed,  which  is 
moderately  Calvinistic.  Indeed,  the  freedom  with 
which  the  German  delegates  took  part  in  this  synod, 
and  their  close  fellowship  with  the  Hollanders,  reveals 
the  intimate  relations  existing  between  the  Reformed 
Churches  of  these  two  lands.  They  met  and  counselled 
and  aided  each  other  as  brethren  in  the  Reformed  faith. 
Their  soldiers  had  fought  side  by  side  in  many  a  battle 
for  Protestantism.  Their  theologians  also  stood  side  by 
side  in  the  synod. 


420         THE   REFORMED   CHURCH   OF   GERMANY. 

As  an  illustration  of  the  prominent  part  that  the 
Germans  took  in  this  synod,  we  would  note  the  fol- 
lowing : 

Scultetus,  as  the  oracle  of  the  Reformed  Church  of 
Germany  and  the  court  preacher  of  the  great  Elector 
of  the  Palatinate,  was  early  given  a  prominent  part  in 
the  synod.  It  was  customary,  in  connection  with  the 
synod,  to  have  sermons  preached  by  its  prominent  mem- 
bers. On  the  15th  of  December,  Scultetus  gave  an  ex- 
position of  the  122d  Psalm,  which  made  a  deep  impres- 
sion. And  on  the  28th  of  December,  he  delivered  an 
address  on  the  "  Certainty  of  Grace,"  in  which  he  re- 
vealed his  great  oratorical  abilities.  On  the  1st  of  Jan- 
uary, as  the  church  at  Zurich  was  celebrating  the 
centennial  of  the  introduction  of  the  reformation  by 
Zwingli,  the  whole  synod  joined  in  its  celebration  at 
Dort,  the  proceedings  being  presided  over  by  Breiting- 
er,  the  successor  of  Zwingli.  On  the  9th  of  January, 
Bisterfield,  from  Nassau,  died.  He  was  honored  by 
the  attendance  of  the  whole  synod  at  his  funeral.  On 
the  29th  of  January,  Alting,  professor  at  Heidelberg 
university,  made  an  address  on  the  doctrine  of  Repro- 
bation, which  surpassed  all  others  in  the  range  of  knowl- 
edge, and  the  profundity  of  thought  that  it  revealed. 
On  the  1st  of  February,  Cruciger,  rector  of  Marburg 
university,  spoke  on  the  "  Extent  of  the  Atonement." 
But,  celebrated    man    though  he  was,  his  address  was  a 


INFLUENCE  OF  THE  GERMANS.        421 

disappointment  to  all,  as  he  was  hardly  able  to  read  it 
in  the  dim  light  of  the  room.  On  the  6th  of  February, 
Stein,  court  preacher  of  the  Landgrave  of  Hesse,  (who 
was  a  strong  Calvinist,  and  very  severe  against  the  Re- 
monstrants), spoke  on  the  "  Irresistibility  of  Grace  ;" 
and  on  the  15th  of  the  same  month,  Alsted,  professor 
of  Herborn  university,  spoke  on  the  same  topic.  On 
the  19th  of  February  occurred  a  bitter  controversy  on 
the  floor  of  synod  between  Gomarus  of  Leyden  and  Mar- 
tinius  of  Bremen.  Gomarus  rudely  attacked  Martinius, 
making  some  remarks  that  reflected  on  him.  And  un- 
fortunately, Bogerman,  the  president,  came  to  the  aid  of 
Gomarus.  The  feeling  ran  so  high  that  the  Bremen 
delegates  prepared  to  leave  Dort,  and  go  home.  But 
the  English  delegates,  especially  the  Bishop  of  Llandaff^, 
who  was  a  peacemaker,  reconciled  the  parties.  Still  for 
a  while  Martinius  did  not  attend  the  sessions  of  the 
synod.  The  disagreement  was,  however,  not  a  theolog- 
ical one,  but  a  personal  one  between  Martinius,  and  Go- 
marus and  the  president  of  the  synod.  On  the  5th  of 
March,  Martinius  again  appeared,  taking  the  place  of 
Deodati,  who  was  sick,  and  delivered  an  address  on  "  The 
Person  of  Christ.'^  And  on  the  20th  of  March,  Crocius, 
another  of  the  Bremen  delegates,  made  an  address  on 
"  Justification.^'  These  Bremen  delegates,  although  their 
views  were  more  liberal  about  Calvinism,  yet  signed  the 
canons  of  Dort. 


422         THE   REFORMED   CHURCH   OF   GERMANY. 

There  were  other  events  that  transpired  in  the  synod 
which  reveal  the  influence  of  the  German  delegates  in  that 
body.  (Two-thirds  of  the  foreign  delegates  and  one-fifth 
of  the  members  of  the  synod  were  Germans.)  Scultetus 
and  the  Bishop  of  LlandaiF  seem  to  have  been  the  most 
influential  foreigners  there,  for  the  president  would  al- 
ways give  way  to  them.  Indeed,  all  the  way  through, 
the  English  and  Palatinate  delegates  acted  very  much 
in  harmony,  because  the  families  of  their  rulers  were  in- 
termarried. These  facts  reveal  the  intimate  relations 
between  the  Dutch  and  German  theologians,  and  the  in- 
terest the  Germans  had  in  the  synod.  And  although  it 
was  a  Dutch  synod,  and  its  decisions  were  carried  out 
only  in  Holland,  yet  the  Germans  were  partially  respon- 
sible for  its  decrees,  and  felt  its  influence  in  their  lands. 

The  history  of  this  synod  also  reveals  the  character 
of  the  Arminians  and  Remonstrants.  From  the  be- 
ginning they  were  evasive  and  contradictory.  They  first 
asked  the  state  to  help  them,  and  then  they  turned 
against  the  state  authority ;  perhaps  because  they  saw 
the  state  was  against  them.  They  first  suggested  the 
idea  of  a  national  synod,  and  when  one  was  appointed, 
they  refused  to  recognize  its  authority.  And  then  they 
contradicted  this  position  by  appearing  before  the  synod. 
They  seemed  to  have  no  decided  principles  of  action. 
They  were  not  persecuted  at  the  synod,  as  some  have 
charged,  but  their  trial  was  fair  and  open.     The  severity 


RESULTS    ON    THE    REMONSTRANTS.  423 

of  its  decision  they  brought  on  themselves,  by  their 
evasions  and  their  opposition.  The  Remonstrants  were 
driven  out  of  Holland.  Barneveld  lost  his  head.  Gro- 
tius  escaped  from  prison  through  a  device  of  his  wife. 
(It  is  a  mistake  to  charge  these  to  the  synod  of  Dort. 
For  the  synod  sent  one  of  its  ministers,  Professor 
Walaus,  to  strengthen  and  prepare  Barneveld  for  death.) 

These  events  were  the  result  of  political  rivalries  be- 
tween Maurice  and  Barneveld,  rather  than  of  religious 
quarrels.  The  teaching  of  Remonstrant  doctrines  was 
forbidden  in  Holland.  Many  of  the  Remonstrants  fled 
to  the  Spanish  Netherlands.  But  when  Frederick 
Henry,  the  brother  of  Maurice,  succeeded  him  ;  he  fa- 
vored the  Remonstrants,  and  allowed  them  to  return 
again  to  Holland.  In  1630,  they  were  allowed  to  build 
a  church  in  Amsterdam.  But  the  Remonstrants  never 
exerted  much  influence  after  the  death  of  Episcopius. 
They  soon  drifted  to  Socinianism.  Episcopius  neared 
Arianism.  Brenius,  his  scholar,  became  an  anti-trini- 
tarian.  They  now  number,  after  an  existence  of  two 
hundred  and  fifty  years,  only  twenty  congregations  and 
five  thousand  members,  and  are  declining.  Their  larg- 
est congregation  is  at  Rotterdam  and  is  composed  of  six 
hundred  members. 

This  synod  has  been  praised  or  censured,  according 
to  the  standpoint  of  the  observer.  Martinius,  in  his  later 
years,  said:    '*  O  Dort,    would  God  I  had  never  seen 


424         THE    REFORMED   CHURCH    OF   GERMANY. 

thee  V'  But  far  otherwise  was  the  general  testimony  of 
the  delegates.  Bishop  Hall,  when  compelled  to  return 
to  England  on  account  of  ill  health,  said  :  ^'  There  is  no 
place  on  earth  so  like  heaven  as  the  synod  of  Dort." 
Breitinger,  the  great  light  of  the  Swiss  churches,  was 
astonished  at  the  learning  of  the  Dutch  delegates,  and 
said  that  if  ever  the  Holy  Spirit  was  present  in  a 
council.  He  was  present  at  Dort.  Scultetus  thanked 
God  that  he  had  been  a  member  of  the  synod,  and  said 
the  synod  was  elevated  as  high  as  heaven  above  all  other 
meetings  of  the  kind.  "  Here  God's  judgment  was 
heard,  there  men's  statutes  and  papist  decrees."  (He 
probably  referred  to  the  Catholic  council  of  Trent ;  and, 
setting  the  synod  of  Dort  over  against  it,  contrasted  the 
two,  to  the  credit  of  Dort.)  The  Basle  delegates,  Koch 
and  Mayer,  always  uncovered  their  heads,  when  the 
synod  was  mentioned,  and  the  latter  called  Dort  "  the 
holy  city,  the  heavenly  Dort."  There  is  no  doubt  that 
some  bitter  things  were  said  in  the  heat  of  the  theological 
controversy  of  that  age.  But  a  calm  judgment  of  the 
synod  must  be,  that  it  did  its  work  constitutionally  and 
fairly.  It  certainly  proved  to  be  a  great  blessing  to 
Holland,  in  giving  to  it  peace  and  spirituality. 

The  canons  of  Dort  had  very  much  the  same  eflPect 
on  the  Reformed  Church  that  the  Formula  of  Concord 
had  on  the  Lutheran  Church.  They  crystallized  its 
theology,  and  brought  out  most  clearly  its  definitions 


RESULTS   OF   THE   SYNOD.  425 

and  logical  relations.  But  it  is  a  significant  sign  (and 
this  reveals  the  more  liberal  spirit  of  the  Reformed 
Church)  that  its  decrees  did  not  excommunicate  the  Lu- 
therans, as  the  Lutherans  had,  the  Reformed  in  the 
Formula  of  Concord.  The  Lutherans,  all  through  this 
controversy,  sympathized  with  the  Remonstrants,  and 
were  opposed  to  the  canons  of  Dort.  They  were  under 
the  false  impression  that  the  condemnation  of  Armin- 
ianism  was  aimed  at  them.  But  this  was  not  true ;  in- 
deed it  could  not  be,  for  the  delegates  from  England 
were  charged  by  the  King  to  see  that  the  synod  took  no 
action  that  would  offend  the  Lutherans. 

This  synod,  whether  we  consider  its  length,  or  the 
number  of  Churches  or  nations  represented,  or  the  abil- 
ity of  the  delegates,  was  one  of  the  most  remarkable  in 
the  history  of  the  Church;  certainly  in  the  history  of 
the  Protestant  Church.  It  was  the  only  time  that  the 
various  continental  Churches  came  together  in  a  synod ; 
and  it  exerted  a  wide  influence  on  all  the  Reformed 
nations. 


28 


CHAPTER  v.— SECTION  III. 

A  Summary. 

From  the  history  as  revealed  in  the  preceding  pages, 
it  is  evident  that  Germany,  in  the  sixteenth  century, 
passed  through  a  crisis.  It  was  a  great  religious  up- 
heaval. A  great  reformation  took  place  in  a  part  of  the 
German  Church — a  reformation  in  doctrine,  custom  and 
government.  It  was  a  new  reformation — a  second  Prot- 
estantism. The  Germans  took  another  step  farther  from 
Romanism,  and  nearer  to  Christ  and  the  Bible.  They 
threw  aside  the  remaining  fragments  of  Romanism  that 
still  existed  in  the  Protestant  Church,  such  as  exorcism, 
wafers,  &c.  They  gave  up  the  sacramentarian  doctrines 
and  the  elaborate  ritual  of  the  Lutheran  Church,  and 
insisted  on  a  return  to  apostolic  simplicity  and  Scriptu- 
ral doctrine.  This  religious  movement  continued  for  a 
hundred  years,  from  the  first  introduction  of  the  Re- 
formed faith  at  Emden  in  1526,  down  to  the  conversion 
of  the  last  prince  and  country  in  1618. "*" 

^During  all  these  years  the  Protestant  Church  of  Germany- 
was  deciding  the  problem,  how  many  of  the  rites  of  the  Catho- 
lic Church  were  Scriptural  and  proper.  The  Lutherans  retained 
some  of  these  forms.  The  Reformed  refused  to  retain  any  that 
were  not  authorized  by  Scripture. 


OPPOSITION    OF   THE    LUTHERANS.  427 

It  is  perfectly  evident  that  so  great  a  niovenient 
could  not  take  place  without  friction  or  strife.  Jt  in- 
volved such  radical  changes  that  bitter  feeling  was  en- 
gendered.* The  people  in  some  places  resorted  to  vio- 
lence, as  in  Wesel  and  Saxony ;  yes,  even  to  riots,  as  at 
Amberg,  Marburg  and  Berlin.  The  Lutheran  Church 
violently  opposed  the  introduction  of  the  Reformed 
Church  into  Germany.  Nor  is  this  to  be  wondered  at. 
The  age  was  a  deeply  religious  one.  Everybody  was 
religious  after  his  own  fashion.  The  people  were  tena- 
cious of  their  religious  principles.  They  were,  there- 
fore, less  tolerant  of  other  faiths.  Almost  all  the  de- 
nominations of  the  age,  at  times,  resorted  to  force  and 
violence.  The  Catholics  raised  an  inquisition.  The 
Episcopalians  persecuted  the  Covenanters.  The  Re- 
formed were  not  absolutely  free  from  the  charge  of  per- 
secution ;  but  they  persecuted  less  than  the  other  denomi- 
nations. The  Lutherans  of  Germany  in  their  opposi- 
tion and  their  use  of  violence  against  theReforuied  only 
shared  the  spirit  of  the  age.  There  is  another  reason 
why  the  Lutherans  opposed  the  Reformed.  The  gospel 
was  a  new  discovery  to  them.  They  valued  it  all  the 
more  highly,  because  their  eyes  had  been  so  long  blinded 
to  it.     It  was  the  opening  of  a  new  world  to  them  when 

*For  an  interesting  German  tale  that  graphically  describes 
the  diflaculties  that  led  to  the  establishment  of  the  Reformed 
Church  in  Germany  in  the  sixteenth  century,  read  "Einer  ist 
euer  Meister,"  by  Sigmund  Sturm  (Sudhoff),  published  by 
Brenner  at  Frankford. 


428         THE   REFORMED    CHURCH    OF    GERMANY. 

Ijuther  preached  the  doctrine  of  justification  by  faith. 
Christianity  became  a  new  religion  to  them.  Truths 
fought  for,  they  clung  to.  Any  departure  from  their 
way  of  thinking  was  a  departure  from  the  faith.  Chris- 
tianity was  Lutheranism,  they  thought ;  all  else  was 
heresy.  In  their  intense  love  for  their  faith  they  be- 
came bigoted.  They  felt  the  Reformed  faith  was  a  de- 
parture from  their  views,  and  so  they  opposed  it.  They 
saw  that  the  Reformed  were  changing  some  of  their 
doctrines  and  rites,  and  they  became  more  bitter  against 
them  for  doing  so.  Many  of  them  misunderstood  the 
Reformed  doctrines.  Some  thought  that  the  Reformed 
denied  the  divinity  of  Christ  and  were  Arians.  Others 
thought  they  lowered  the  sacrament  of  the  Lord's  Sup- 
per to  an  ordinary  meal.  Others  only  saw  that  they 
were  diiferent  from  their  Lutheranism.  And  so  they 
all,  for  one  cause  or  another,  violently  opposed  the  in- 
troduction of  the  Reformed  Church. 

But  in  the  light  of  the  nineteenth,  if  not  of  the  six- 
teenth century,  their  treatment  of  the  Reformed  can  not 
be  defended.  Such  persecutions  of  brethren  in  the  faith 
were  not  Christian.  They  can  be  excused,  but  not  de- 
fended. We  only  know  that  such  things  would  not  be 
done  by  the  Lutherans  of  to-day.  For  the  Lutherans 
of  the  nineteenth  century  have  progressed  beyond  the 
Lutherans  of  the  sixteenth.  Though  they  are  still 
tenacious  of  their  faith,  they  would  not,  by  force,  com- 


THE   LUTHERANS   OF   THIS    AGE.  429 

pel  others  to  accept  it.  Nor  would  they  persecute  any 
who  left  their  Church.  It  is  an  interesting  fact  (and  it 
is  to  be  remenabered  in  this  connection)  that  the  Lu- 
therans of  to-day  have  very  largely  come  around  to  the 
very  position  for  which  the  Reformed  contended  in  the 
sixteenth  century.  The  low  Lutherans  or  Melanctho- 
nians  then  contended  for  broader  views  of  doctrine  and 
a  wider  sympathy.  The  Reformed  asked  for  tolera- 
tion. Both  of  these  things  the  Lutherans  of  to-day  are 
willing  to  grant.  The  Lutherans  now  treat  the  Re- 
formed as  brethren — a  courtesy  they  refused  in  the  six- 
teenth century  ;  as  was  shown  by  Luther's  conduct  at 
Marburg  and  by  the  words  of  the  Formula  of  Concord, 
which  condemned  the  Reformed  as  heretics.*  And  a 
second  change  in  the  Lutheran  Church  is  to  be  noted 
— a  change  not  only  in  courtesy,  but  in  doctrine.  The 
Lutheran  Church  of  this  century  has  largely  come  around 
to  the  Melancthonian  doctrine  of  the  Lord's  supper. 
While  there  are  still  high  Lutherans,  yet  the  leading 
Lutheran  theologians  of  Germany  are  Melancthonian  in 
doctrine  and  spirit.  Had  the  Lutherans  of  the  sixteenth 
century  believed  as  they  do  to-day,  the  Mclancthonians 
never  would  have  gone  out  of  that  Church  into  the  Re- 

*The  writer  had  the  privilege  of  attending  a  meeting  of  the 
Evangelical  Alliance  held  in  Lutlierau  Denmark,  where  other 
denoEQinations— the  Reformed,  and  even  the  Baptists  and  Meth- 
odists—were received  with  the  greatest  cordiality  and  treated 
with  great  kindness. 


430         THE   REFORMED    CHURCH    OF   GERMANY. 

formed.  And  still  another  fact  is  to  be  remembered  in 
looking  at  this  history.  It  is  to  be  remembered  that 
the  high  Lutherans,  who  instigated  the  harsh  treatment 
of  the  Reformed  in  the  sixteenth  century,  were  only  one 
section  of  the  Lutheran  Church.  There  were  then  two 
tendencies — a  high  Lutheran  and  a  Melancthouian. 
And  the  Melancthonians  were  as  much  Lutheran  as'  the 
others.  Had  the  Melancthonian  views  prevailed,  it  had 
been  better  for  tiie  Lutheran  Church.  For  the  Me- 
lancthonians would  have  remained  in  the  Lutheran 
Church.  But  it  would  have  been  worse  for  the  Re- 
formed Church  ;  for  then  the  Reformed  Church  of  Ger- 
many would  have  been  a  very  small  one ;  and  her  his- 
tory very  brief,  indeed.* 

From  the  past  history  it  will  also  be  noticed  that 
there  were  three  general  causes  for  the  origin  of  the  Re- 
formed Church.  The  first  was  the  opposition  that  sprang 
up  against  the  doctrines  of  ubiquity.  The  Melanctho- 
nian theologians  and  princes  would  have  nothing  to  do 
with  it.  And  so  bitter  did  they  become  in  their  de- 
nunciations of  it,  that  they  were  driven  in  an  opposite 

*We  trust,  therefore,  that  if  anything  has  been  said  in  this 
volume  that  may  seem  to  reflect  in  any  way  on  the  Lutherans, 
it  will  be  remembered  that  the  Lutherans  of  the  sixteenth  cen- 
tury were  meant,  and  not  the  Lutherans  of  to-day.  It  was  ne- 
cessary to  give  the  facts  as  history  gave  them,  in  order  to  explain 
the  causes  that  led  to  the  formation  of  the  Reformed  Church  in 
Germany.  And  not  a  few  Lutherans  of  to-day  have  seen  and 
confessed  the  mistakes  made  by  their  Church  in  the  sixteenth 
century. 


CAUSES    FOR   THE    REFORMED   CHURCH.  431 

direction,  to  a  position  that  brought  them  not  very  far 
from  the  Reformed  faith.  It  was  then  only  a  step  for 
them  to  pass  over  to  the  Reformed  Church.  And  the 
persistent  efforts  of  the  high  Lutherans,  to  force  their 
doctrines  on  them  through  the  Formula  of  Concord,  only 
increased  their  opposition.  Thus  the  doctrine  of  ui)i- 
quity,  with  the  doctrines  and  rites  connected  with  it, 
drove  the  Melancthonians  into  the  Reformed  Church. 
The  second  cause  was  the  bigotry  of  these  high  Luther- 
ans, who  gradually  attained  a  commanding  influence  in 
the  Church.  The  closer  they  clung  to  ubiquity,  the 
farther  they  drew  themselves  away  from  other  denomi- 
nations. They  declared  they  alone  possessed  the  truth, 
and  all  others  were  heretics.  But  broad-minded  men  in 
the  Lutheran  Church  were  not  to  be  cramped  by  such 
narrowness.  Generous  hearted  men  in  that  Church  re- 
fused to  have  their  sympathies  dwarfed  and  crushed  out 
of  them.  The  result  was  that  the  Germans  who  pitied 
the  Reformed  in  their  persecutions  by  the  Catholics, 
and  who  hated  the  persecutions  of  the  Lutherans  against 
the  Reformed,  left  the  Church,  rather  than  be  a  party 
to  such  bigotry. 

There  was  a  third  reason  for  the  origin  of  the  Re- 
formed Church — a  reason  tiuit  has  not  been  noted  as  it 
deserves  to  be.  For  it  had  a  potent  influence  in  scat- 
tering the  seeds  of  the  Reformed  faith,  so  as  to  bring 
forth  an  abundant  harvest.     This  cause  was   the  inter- 


432         THE    REFORMED   CHURCH    OF   GERMANY. 

marriage  of  the  Reformed  princes  among  the  noble 
families  of  Germany.  This  intermarriage,  or  associa- 
tion of  the  princely  families,  brought  many  princes  into 
the  Reformed  Church.  And  when  the  prince  of  a  land 
became  Reformed,  he  usually  brought  the  people  of  his 
land  with  him  into  the  Reformed  Church.  There  is 
what  might  be  called  (following  out  the  idea  suggested 
by  the  apostolic  succession)  a  princely  succession,  by 
which  the  princes,  one  after  another,  seemed  to  bestow 
the  Reformed  faith  on  other  princes.  And  this  revealed 
some  curious  facts  about  the  spread  of  the  Reformed. 
In  a  few  places,  as  in  the  free  cities  of  Strasburg,  Bre- 
men and  Emden,  the  Reformed  faith  was  introduced 
through  no  princely  influence.  But  in  almost  every 
other  state  such  was  the  case.  Elector  Frederick  III» 
of  the  Palatinate  began  this  movement  among  the  princes 
toward  the  Reformed  Church.  He  happened  to  have 
Count  Lewis  of  Wittgenstein  as  his  Court  master  in  the 
Palatinate.  When  Frederick  died,  although  the  Re- 
formed faith  was  driven  out  of  the  Palatinate,  yet  Count 
Lewis  took  it  to  his  own  home  in  Wittgenstein.  And 
so  the  county  of  Sayn-Wittgenstein  became  Reformed. 
The  intimacy  of  Count  Lewis  with  his  friend  and  neigh- 
bor, Count  John  of  Nassau-Dillenberg  (who  afterwards 
married  his  daughter),  influenced  him  to  receive  the  Re- 
formed doctrines.  Count  John  then,  in  his  turn,  be- 
came a  missionary  for  the  Reformed  Church.     And  very 


THE   PRINCELY   SUCCESSION.  433 

zealously  did  he  influence  the  neighboring  counts  of 
Solms,  Hanau  and  Isenberg  to  become  Reformed.  (The 
Count  of  Hanau  had  Count  John  as  his  guardian,  and 
the  Count  of  Solms  afterward  married  into  the  Nassau 
family.)  Thus  through  the  association  of  these  princes, 
almost  the  whole  Wetterau  district  became  Reformed. 
Nor  does  their  influence  stop  here.  For  Count  John  of 
Wied  became  Reformed  through  intermarriage  with  the 
Nassau  family.  And  then  the  county  of  Meurs  (west  of 
the  Rhine)  was  influenced  toward  the  Reformed  Church 
through  intermarriage  with  this  same  Nassau  family. 
Count  Adolph  of  Nuenar,  the  prince  of  Meurs,  became 
a  great  champion  of  the  Reformed  Church.  Through 
the  influence  of  Count  Adolph,  the  Reformed  faith 
spread  northward.  He  influenced  his  cousin,  Count 
Wirich  of  Daun-Falkenstein  (east  of  the  Rhine,  near 
Cologne),  to  join  the  Reformed  Church.  And  Count 
Wirich  in  turn  influenced  his  brother-in-law,  Count 
William  of  Hardenberg  (in  the  county  of  Berg),  to  be- 
come Reformed.  Thus  the  Reformed  Church  was 
planted  east  and  west  of  the  northern  Rhine. 

Nor  did  it  stop.  It  continued  its  course  northward 
to  Bentheim  and  Tecklenberg.  For  Count  Arnold  of 
Bentheim  married  into  the  Nuenar  family  of  Meurs,  and 
was  led  to  introduce  the  Reformed  doctrines  into  his 
land.  And  what  aided  in  the  spread  of  the  Reformed 
faith  northward  also  caused  its  spread  eastward.     The 


434         THE   REFORMED    CHURCH    OF   GERMANY. 

Dukes  of  Anhalt  married  into  the  Reformed  families  of 
the  Palatinate  and  Bentheim  (Duke  John  George  of 
Anhalt-Dessau  married  a  daughter  of  Prince  Casimir  of 
the  Palatinate,  and  Duke  Christian  of  Anhalt-Bernberg 
married  a  princess  of  Bentheim),  and  so  Anhalt  became 
Preformed.  Elector  Sigismund  of  Brandenberg  was 
brought  into  direct  contact  with  the  Reformed  faith  by 
the  marriage  of  his  son  George  William  to  the  daughter 
of  Elector  Frederick  IV.  of  the  Palatinate.  He  went 
to  Heidelberg  to  the  wedding ;  and  by  this  association 
and  intermarriage  of  the  Brandenberg  and  Palatinate 
families,  he  was  influenced  to  the  Reformed  faith.  The 
Duke  of  Leignitz  married  into  the  Anhalt  family  (Duke 
Joachim  Frederick  married  the  princess  Anna  Maria  of 
Anhalt),  and  so  he  became  Reformed. 

The  remaining  princely  houses  of  Hesse  and  Schon- 
aicher  were  influenced  toward  the  Reformed  Church — if 
not  by  marriage,  by  association  with  Reformed  princes. 
This  princely  succession  —  this  conversion  of  prince 
through  prince — aided  very  greatly  in  spreading  the 
Reformed  doctrines  and  enlarging  the  Reformed  Church. 
And  while  we  do  not  believe  that  mere  intermarriage 
converted  them  to  the  Reformed  faith,  yet  their  mar- 
riage into  Reformed  families  introduced  the  Reformed 
'doctrines  to  them  and  prepared  them  for  their  conver- 
sion. 

Summing  up  results,  we  find  that  the  Reformed 
Church  had  twelve  organizations  in   Germany  by  1620, 


STRENGTH    OF   THE    REFORMED   CHURCH.        435 

the  end  of  the  first  century  of  its  existence  in  Germany. 
She  had  regularly  organized  synods  in  Hesse,  the  lower 
Rhine,  tlie  Wetterau  counties,  and  in  Bentheim.  Lippe, 
Zweibriicken,  Anhalt,  Brandeiiberg  and  Leignitz  were 
under  the  control  of  Reformed  consistories.  The  Palat- 
inate had  classes  regularly  organized  and  presided  over 
by  some  member  of  the  consistory.  Bremen  was  organ- 
ized under  a  conference,  and  Emden  under  a  coetus. 
Thus  all  the  churches  were  organized  into  church  courts. 
And  although  the  organization  was  not  purely  presby- 
terian  in  all  the  upper  courts,  yet  it  was  so  in  the  lower 
courts  (the  presbytery  or  board  of  elders),  which  were 
organized  everywhere.  The  Reformed  Church  had  also 
thoroughly  organized  her  educational  institutions.  She 
was  a  great  educator.  The  universities  of  Heidelberg, 
Marburg,  Herborn,  and  Frankford-on-the-Oder  were 
under  Reformed  control.  She  also  had  gymnasia  at 
Neustadt,  Bremen,  Hanau,  Zerbst,  Steinfurt,  Brieg,  Beu- 
then  and  Berlin,  in  which  there  were  professors  of  Re- 
formed theology.  In  the  roll  of  princes,  as  well  as  in 
organizations  and  colleges,  she  had  become  strong.  Two 
of  the  Electors  of  Germany,  six  dukes,  one  landgrave, 
seventeen  counts  and  two  free  cities  had  embraced  the 
Reformed  faith.  In  all  she  numbered  on  her  roll  twenty 
eight  states  of  the  empire,  or  about  one  fourth  of  the 
princes  and  states  in  the  German  Diet.  Some  one  has 
hazarded  the  statement  that  at  that  time    one  third  of 


436         THE   REFORMED   CHURCH    OF   GERMANY. 

Germany  was  Reformed.  This  estimate  is  probably 
large.  But  it  only  shows  to  what  large  proportions  and 
great  influence  the  Reformed  Church  had  grown  in  Ger- 
many within  sixty  years,  from  1560  to  1620.  Two  of 
the  three  Protestant  Electors  were  Reformed  ;  only  one, 
the  Elector  of  Saxony,  being  Lutheran.  Some  of  the 
leading  statesmen  and  soldiers  of  Germany,  as  Prince 
Casimir  and  Duke  Christian  of  Anhalt,  were  Reformed. 
The  Elector  of  the  Palatinate  stood  at  the  head  of  the 
Protestant  Union  which  arrayed  itself  against  the  Cath- 
olic powers.  And  next  to  him,  supporting  him,  stood 
the  little  less  powerful  prince,  Landgrave  Maurice  of 
Hesse.  The  Reformed  Church  was  strong  in  schools, 
population  and  influence.  Probably  just  before  the 
Thirty  Years'  War,  which  so  terribly  devastated  her,  she 
was  stronger  than  she  ever  was  before  or  has  been  since. 


CHAPTER  v.— SECTION  IV. 

Conclusion. 

From  the  preceeding  history  we  can  see  quite  clearly 
the  purpose  for  which  the  Reformed  Church  was 
founded.  She  was  organized  to  protest  against  the  er- 
rors of  the  Romish  Church,  and  the  sacramentarianism 
and  ritualistic  position  of  the  Lutheran  Church.  She 
was  a  revolt  against  what  we  would  call  high  church 
doctrines  and  ceremonies.  If  her  members  had  not  been 
so  strongly  opposed  to  these  things,  they  would  never 
have  come  out  of  the  Lutheran  Church.  And  if  we,  her 
children,  would  be  true  to  her,  we  must  perpetuate  the 
principles  that  led  to  her  foundation.  It  is,  therefore, 
easy  to  see  the  theological  position  of  the  Fathers  of  the 
Reformed  Church.  We  will  take  up  this  subject  under 
three  heads,  and  see  why  she  was  founded,  and  what  we, 
her  children,  are  to  perpetuate. 

I. — Her  Church  Government. 

In  her  constitution  she  was  Presbyterian.  The  two 
principles  on  which  she  was  founded,  were  the  equality 
of  the  ministry,  and  the  prominence  of  the  elders.  In 
carrying  out  those  principles,  she  received  a  more  thor- 
ough organization  than  the  Lutheran  Church.     She  held 


438         THE    REFORMED    CHURCH    OF   GERMANY. 

that  the  Church  must  organize  itself.  The  Lutherans 
held  that  it  was  the  princess  duty  to  organize  the  Church. 
The  Reformed  were  therefore  republican,  the  Lutherans 
monarchical,  in  their  tendencies  ;  the  Reformed  demo- 
cratic, the  Lutherans  aristocratic.  Lambert,  Lasco  and 
Olevianus  were  the  great  organizers  of  the  German  Re- 
formed Church.  They  arranged  its  organization  into 
presbyteries,  classes  and  synods,  Lasco  giving  special  at- 
tention to  the  first,  and  Olevianus  to  the  last  two.  As  a 
result,  we  find  that  in  the  Lower  Rhine,  Bentheim,  the 
Wetterau  district,  Emden  and  Bremen,  there  was  a  thor- 
ough presbyterial  organization.  But  in  the  other  lands 
this  presbyterian  organization  was  modified  to  some  ex- 
tent by  the  appointment  of  a  consistory  who  had  charge 
of  the  church  affairs  of  the  land.  The  organization  of 
the  Reformed  Church  then  was  presbyterian  or  consis- 
torial.  And  even  where  it  was  most  affected  by  Luther- 
anism,  as  in  Eastern  Germany,  it  still  preserved  more 
independence  of  state  control  than  did  the  Lutheran. 
But  the  prominence  given  to  the  elders  by  the  Reformed 
was  a  very  important  advance  on  the  Lutheran  organi- 
zation. The  elders  always  occupied  a  prominent  place 
in  the  congregation.  The  example  and  influence  of  the 
French  Reformed  churches  at  Strasburg,  Heidelberg  and 
in  the  Northern  Rhine,  opened  the  eyes  of  the  Germans 
to  the  value  of  a  good  eldership.  So  the  German 
churches  were  organized  after  that  pattern.     Elders,  or 


I  SHE   IS   PRESBYTERIAN.  439 

censors,  as  they  were  often  called,  were  appointed  in  each 
congregation.  They  were  to  assist  the  minister  in  his 
duties,  and  to  exercise  discipline  over  the  membership  of 
the  church.  It  was  their  duty  to  visit  the  congregation, 
along  with  the  minister,  especially  before  a  communion 
season.  And  sometimes,  as  at  Cologne  and  Heidelberg, 
the  town  was  divided  into  districts,  and  each  district  was 
placed  under  the  oversight  of  an  elder.  In  the  Lower 
Rhine  region,  where  the  Reformed  Church  had  the 
greatest  freedom  to  develop  herself,  the  elders  were  ac- 
customed to  preside  at  a  religious  meeting  (when  the 
pastor  was  absent).  And  in  their  meetings  of  the 
church  courts  they  were  accustomed  to  call  each  other 
brother- minister  and  brother-elder,  no  distinction  being 
made  in  their  rank.  Occasionally,  as  in  Hesse,  the  elder 
would  assist  the  minister  in  handing  the  cup  at  the  sup- 
per. All  these  facts  and  customs  only  reveal  the  prom- 
inence of  the  elders  in  the  churches,  and  the  importance 
placed  on  the  office. 

Still  another  peculiarity  of  the  Reformed  Church 
was  her  use  of  church  discipline.  As  this  power  of  dis- 
cipline was  given  to  the  elders  in  each  church,  the  dis- 
cipline of  the  Reformed  was  stricter  than  among  the 
Lutherans,  who  left  that  power  in  the  hands  of  the  min- 
ister or  the  superintendent.  The  result  of  this  strict 
church  discipline  was  a  high  type  of  piety  and  a  purer 
church  life.     Even  Tholuck  himself  admits  this  fact. 


440        THE    REFORMED    CHURCH    OF    GERMANY. 

This  strict  church  discipline  became  a  great  blessing  to 
the  Church.  Though  at  times  there  was  carelessness  in 
administering  it ;  yet  the  fact  that  they  could  be  dis- 
ciplined, always  acted]]as  a  check  on  the  Reformed  mem- 
bers. It  was  owing  to  this  peculiar  organization  that 
the  Reformed  were  able  to  resist  the  torrent  of  woes  that 
poured  over  them,  billow  after  billow,  in  the  seventeenth 

century. 

II. — Doctrine. 

The  doctrinal  position  of  the  Reformed  Church  was 
Calvinism.  On  the  doctrine  of  predestination  she  was 
Calvinistic.  True,  her  Calvinism  was  at  first  somewhat 
tinctured  by  Melancthonianism.  For  as  the  Melanc- 
thonians  came  over  to  the  Reformed  Church,  they 
shaded  off  gradually  into  Calvinism.  But  as  they  be- 
came more  Reformed,  they  became  more  Calvinistic. 
Thus,  for  instance,  Anhalt  was  at  first  Melancthonian. 
But  as  she  became  more  thoroughly  Reformed,  it  was 
not  long  before  Calvinists  like  Wendelin  appeared. 
Brandenberg  was  at  first  Melancthonian,  but  soon  strict 
Calvinists  like  Evell  appeared  in  the  Church.  It  is 
true,  a  school  of  Calvinists  appeared,  who  were  lower  in 
their  Calvinism  than  Calvin — the  sublapsarian  school, 
which  followed  Lasco  rather  than  Calvin,  and  believed 
in  the  universality  of  the  atonement.  Yet  the  Church 
was  Calvinistic,  for  these  sublapsarians  were  considered 
Calvinists. 


SHE    IS   CALVINISTIC.  441 

There  have  been  those  iu  the  Reformed  Church 
who  have  derided  Calvinism.  But  they  should  remem- 
ber that  Calvinism  lay  at  the  foundation  of  the  Re- 
formed Church.  Had  it  not  been  for  Calvinism,  we 
would  have  had  no  Reformed  Church  of  Germany. 

The  theological  position  of  the  Reformed  Church 
of  the  sixteenth  century  is  well  exhibited  in  her  symbol, 
the  Heidelberg  Catechism,  which  was  moderately  Cal- 
vinistic.  For  this  catechism  was  adopted  by  all  the 
Reformed  churches  except  Brandenberg  (which  held  to 
the  Sigismund  Confession),  and  Zweibriicken  (where 
the  Zweibriicken  catechism  was  used.)  The  Heidelberg 
Catechism  was  introduced  into  Wesel,  the  Wetterau 
counties,  Bremen,  Emden  (although  the  Emden  cate- 
chism continued  to  be  used  even  in  this  century,)  the 
Lower  Rhine,  Bentheim,  Anhalt,  Lippe,  Leignitz  and 
Hesse  (where,  although  a  creed  of  the  Church,  it  was 
only  used  as  a  text-book  in  the  schools).  But  it  is  to  be 
noticed  that  the  Eastern  Reformed  churches,  which  were 
more  influenced  by  Melancthon,  were  moderately  Cal- 
vinistic  (sublapsarian.)  Bergius  of  Brandenberg,  Am- 
ling  of  Anhalt,  Goclenius  of  Hesse,  and  Martiuius  of 
Bremen  were  the  leaders  of  this  moderate  Calvinism. 
But  Western  Germany,  which  was  so  intimately  related, 
on  the  one  hand  to  Holland,  and  on  the  other  to  Switz- 
erland (where  high  Calvinism  was  in  the  ascendant), 
29 


442         THE    REFORMED    CHURCH    OF    GERMANY. 

was  high  Calvinistic.  The  Palatinate,  Lower  Rhine, 
Bentheim  and  Emden  were  then  strongly  Calvinistic. 
Thus  we  see  that  the  general  position  of  the  Re- 
formed Church  in  that  day  was  that  of  the  Heidelberg 
Catechism.  It  was  Calvinistic,  but  it  included  in  it 
various  degrees  of  Calvinism.  It  is  also  to  be  noticed 
that  a  new  school  of  theologians  was  beginning  to  ap- 
pear, called  the  Federal  school.  They  believed  in  the 
'  theology  of  the  covenants  '  Their  leader  afterwards 
was  Koch,  and  from  him  they  are  called  the  Cocceian 
school.  This  school  aimed  to  be  Scriptural  rather  than 
Scholastic.  They  taught  a  theology  of  the  Bible  rather 
than  of  philosophy.  And  while  it  still  clung  to  God's 
sovereignty,  it  gave  larger  liberty  to  the  human  will. 
Olevianus,  in  his  work  on  '^  Grace,"  became  the  fore- 
runner of  this  school  ;  and  his  successor  at  Herborn, 
Piscator,  helped  to  prepare  the  way  for  it.  Thus  Olevi- 
anus prepared  the  way  for  moderate  Calvinism,  while, 
on  the  other  hand,  it  is  to  be  noticed  that  Ursinus 
seems  to  have  prepared  the  way  for  the  high  Calvin- 
istic school.  For  his  pupils,  as  Gomarus,  Lybrand 
and  others,  became  the  leaders  of  the  high  Calvinistic 
party  in  the  next  generation  of  theologians.  The  theo- 
logical position  of  the  early  Reformed  Church  was  Cal- 
vinism, although  she  allowed  liberty  of  thought  in  her 
Calvinism. 


HER    DOCTRINE    OF    THE    SUPPER.  443 

On  the  doctrine  of  the  Lord's  supper  the  Reformed 
Church  was  Calvinistic.  While  on  the  one  hand  she 
rejected  the  Catholic  doctrine  of  transubstantiation  and 
the  Lutheran  doctrine  of  eonsubstantiation,  on  the  other 
hand  she  also  rejected  the  doctrine  that  the  elements  were 
mere  signs.  In  her  early  history  there  were  quite  a 
number  of  Zwinglians  who  inclined  to  the  view  that  the 
bread  and  wine  were  only  symbols.  But  this  afterward 
gave  way  to  the  generally  received  doctrine  of  Calvin, 
that  there  was  a  special  presence  of  Christ  at  the  supper. 
(The  supper  was  more  than  a  mere  memorial,  it  was  a 
meeting-place  of  Christ  with  the  soul.)  Christ  was  pres- 
ent, not  bound  up  in  the  elements,  but  spiritually  pres- 
ent in  the  soul  of  the  believer.  The  sacrament  was  not 
merely  a  sign,  but  a  reality.  Christ's  presence  was  a 
real  spiritual  one.  Here  it  is  that  Calvin  and  Melanc- 
thon  neared  each  other.  And  yet  they  never  fully  har- 
monized. Melancthon,  educated  under  Lutheranisra, 
came  to  it  from  the  Lutheran  standpoint  of  the  carna^ 
presence.  Calvin  came  to  it  from  the  opposite  position, 
from  the  idea  of  a  spiritual  presence.  These  two  re- 
formers neared  each  other.  But  coming  to  the  doctrine 
from  opposite  poles,  they  looked  at  it  from  opposite 
sides.  And  Melancthon  was  tinctured  with  the  idea  of 
a  carnal  presence,  while  Calvin  with  a  spiritual  presence. 
The  result  of  this  was  that  they  differed  in  the  efficacy 
of  this  sacrament.     Melancthon  held  with  the  Luther- 


444         THE    REFORMED    CHURCH    OF   GERMANY. 

ans  that  all  who  ate  of  Christ^s  body  received  benefit; 
Calvin  held  the  opposite,  that  the  believers  were  blessed, 
but  unbelievers  were  condemned.  The  Heidelberg  Cat- 
echism, in  answer  eighty-one,  plainly  states  Calvin's 
position  —  that  the  unworthy  eat  and  drink  judgment 
to  themselves.  The  Reformed  Church  then  agreed  with 
Calvin  in  rejecting  three  views  of  the  Lutherans  con- 
cerning the  Lord's  supper  —  impanation,  or  the  presence 
of  Christ's  body  and  blood  "in,  with  and  under"  the 
elements;  oral  manducation,  or  the  receptiou  of  Christ's 
body  through  the  mouth  ;  and  the  efficacy  of  the  sacra- 
ment to  the  unworthy.  She  agreed  with  Calvin  in  re- 
jecting these  three.  She  held  to  a  presence  of  Christ  at 
the  supper,  but  a  presence  in  the  soul  of  the  believer. 

The  Reformed  also  agreed  with  Calvin  in  rejecting 
ubiquity  and  the  doctrines  underlying  it.  And  in  op- 
posing ubiquity,  they  also  opposed  the  doctrine  of  Christ's 
natures,  which  was  the  foundation  of  ubiquity  ;  namely 
that  the  attributes  of  the  one  nature  could  be  predicated  of 
the  other.  Thus,  that  the  attribute  of  omnipresence  could 
be  given  to  his  human  body,  so  that  it  might  be  every- 
where, wherever  the  Lord's  supper  was  celebrated.  But 
the  Reformed  held  that  the  two  natures,  while  united  in 
one  person,  were  distinct ;  and  that  the  properties  of  each 
remained  distinct.  The  forty-seventh  answer  of  the  Hei- 
delberg catechism  very  clearly  describes  this  distinctness 
in  regard  to  his  attribute   of  omnipresence.     The   Re- 


HER   OPPOSITION   TO    UBIQUITY.  445 

formed  Church  was  opposed  to  any  tendency  toward  any 
fusion  of  the  two  natures  of  Christ  —  opi)osed  to  any 
Eutychianism  or  any  theanthropic  life  theories.  The 
arguments  used  by  Olevianus  and  Ursinus  at  the  Maul- 
brou  conference  reveal  their  opposition  to  ubiquity  or 
any  fusion  of  the  natures  of  Christ.  In  his  comments 
of  the  catechism,*  Ursinus  very  severely  opposes  ubiquity 
or  any  fusion  of  Christ's  natures.  Osiandrianism  (which 
held  that  sanctification  was  an  infusion  of  Christ's  na- 
ture into  the  believer  through  the  incarnation)  and  Cal- 
vinism were  at  opposite  poles.  Funk,  Osiander's  son- 
in-law,  felt  this.  And  the  bitterest  thrust  he  could  give 
against  the  Wittenberg  theologians  was  that  they  were 
Calvinists.  If  then  the  Lutherans  rejected  Osiandrian- 
ism ;  how  much  more  did  the  Calvinists  (who  opposed 
even  ubrquity)  reject  it.  The  Reformed  Church  in  her 
origin  and  history  is  a  continued  protest  against  such  the- 
ories. And  any  attempt  to  introduce  them  is  a  re- 
turn to  the  very    doctrines  which  she  then  repudiated. 

III. —  Cultus  or  Customs  of  the  Reformed  Church. 

Intimately  connected  with  the  doctrine  of  a  Church 
is  her  cultus  or  custom  of  worship.  The  cultus  depends 
on  the  doctrines  and  also  reveals  them.  It  is  the  mirror 
of  the  Church's  doctrines.  Is  a  denomination  ritualistic 
or  not,  her  worship  will  reveal  it.  The  Reformed 
*Page  249  of  Dr.  WMUiard's  translation. 


446  THE    REFORMED    CHURCH    OF    GERMANY. 

Church  worship  was  in  accord  with  her  moderate  views 
of  the  sacraments.  Opposed  to  all  sacramentarianism 
(as  we  now  understand  that  word),  she  was  simple  in  her 
service.  The  centre  of  her  service  was  not  the  mass,  as 
in  the  Romish  Church,  nor  the  ritual,  as  in  the  Luther- 
an Church  of  that  day,  or  the  Episcopal  Church  of  to- 
day, but  it  was  the  Scripture.  The  Reformed  Church 
always  gave  great  prominence  and  showed  great  respect 
for  the  Scripture  in  her  public  services.  The  Lutherans 
emphasized  the  doctrine  of  justification  by  faith,  but  the 
Reformed  emphasized  the  authority  of  the  Scriptures. 
This  is  evident  from  all  the  Reformed  confessions.  The 
first  Reformed  confession  of  Germany,  the  Tetrapolitana, 
made  prominent  the  Scriptures  as  the  rule  of  faith.  The 
Lutheran  confessions  did  not  speak  of  it  at  that  time. 
This  authority  of  Scripture  is  the  key  note  of  Reformed 
history  and  church  life.  The  creed  and  the  custom  must 
harmonize  with  Scripture.  We  find,  therefore,  that  in 
the  church  services  the  Scripture  occupied  the  central 
place.  It  was  the  reading  and  the  preaching  of  the 
word  that  were  most  honored.  It  is  still  the  custom  in 
many  of  the  Reformed  churches  of  Germany  for  the 
congregation  to  rise  during  the  reading  of  Scripture,  and 
also  during  the  reading  of  the  text ;  then  to  sit  down  and 
remain  seated  during  the  sermon.  Ebrard  gives  an  il- 
lustration ;  that  in  some  of  the  Reformed  churches  men 
used  to  put  on  their  hats  after  the  text  had   been  read 


PROMINENCE   OF   THE    PULPIT.  447 

and  kept  them  on  their  heads  during  the  sermon  ;  so  as 
to  distinguish  the  sermon  as  man's  word  from  the  text  as 
God's  word.  Such  was  the  reverence  given  to  God's 
word,  and  its  prominence  in  the  service.  If,  then,  the 
Scriptures  were  the  important  part  of  the  service,  the 
pulpit,  therefore,  was  made  the  prominent  feature  of  the 
Church,  and  not  the  altar.  Indeed,  the  Reformed 
Church  had  no  altars.  She  liad  nothing  but  commun- 
ion tables.  Her  liturgies  continually  call  it  a  commun- 
ion table,  not  an  altar.  Almost  the  first  thing  the  Re- 
formed did  in  each  country  in  Germany  was  to  cleanse 
the  churches  from  altars.  And  sometimes  they  did  it, 
though  there  was  danger  in  doing  it,  and  riots  ensued. 
All  this  only  revealed  their  determined  opposition  to 
altars.*  The  pulpit  occupied  the  prominent  place  in 
the  centre  of  the  church,  with  the  plain  communion  ta- 
ble at  the  distant  end  of  the  church,  or  else  nothing  but 
an  almost  unseen  table  beneath  the  pulpit.  Any  at- 
tempt, therefore,  to  put  the  altar  in  the  principal  place 
in  the  church,  and  to  put  the  pulpit  to  one  side,  is  con- 
trary to  the  history  and^custom  of  the  Reformed  Church. 
It  is  bringing'^back  into  the  Church  what  she  so  repudi- 
ated at  her^origin.  Such  customs  are  Lutheran,  and  not 
Reformed,  for  the  Lutheran  and  Episcopalian  Churches 
give  prominence  to  altars.  The  Bible,  the  pulpit  and 
preaching  were  the  centre  of  her  worship. 

■*See  Index  ou  Altars. 


448         THE   REFORMED   CHURCH    OF    GERMANY. 

In  harmony  with  this  idea  of  worship,  the  promi- 
nence of  Scripture,  it  is  to  be  noticed  that  the  Reformed 
Church  did  not  use  Scripture  lessons  or  Pericopes.*  She 
was  not  satisfied  with  only  parts  of  the  Bible.  She 
wanted  the  whole  Bible  to  be  read  at  her  services.f  The 
Palatinate  liturgy,  which  was  generally  used  throughout 
Germany,  does  not  mention  Scripture  lessons.  They 
were  ignored.  They  were  considered  Lutheran  and  not 
Reformed.  The  Church  of  Hesse  was  the  only  one  that 
used  them  ;  but  they  were  not  in  general  use,  for  the 
Hessian  liturgy  was  not  used  outside  of  that  land.  And 
in  as  far  as  the  Hessian  Church  used  them,  she  was  not 
considered  purely  Reformed  by  the  other  Reformed 
Churches.  The  minister  was  not  limited  to  taking  his 
texts  from  the  Scripture  lessons  of  the  day.  He  was 
free  to  take  his  texts  from  any  part  of  the  Bible.  In 
fact,  some  of  the  synods  ordered  the  texts  to  be  free,  so 
that  the  minister  might  not  be  bound  up  to  the  Peri- 
copes. The  Palatinate  liturgy  ordered  that  he  take 
texts  from  the  Old  and  the  New  Testaments.  It  does 
not  limit  him  to  the  gospel  and  epistle  of  the  day.  In 
many  places  whole  chapters  were  read  in  connection  with 
the  service.  Thus  the  Reformed  Church  shook  off  the 
trammels  of  the  Pericopes.  She  was  not  satisfied  with 
the  reading  of  meagre  parts  of  the  Bible,  for  they  left  her 

*See  index  on  Scripture  lessons. 

tFor  the  evil  results  of  the  use  of  the  Pericopes  in  the  Lu- 
theran Church,  see  Ebrard's  Church  History,  III.,  626. 


THE   CHURCH    YEAR.  449 

members  ignorant  of  the  greater  part  of  the  Bible,  which 
was  never  read.     In  connection  with  the  Pericopes,  it  is 
to  be  noticed  that  the  Reformed  Church    did   not  have 
the  church  year.     Luther  aimed   to  retain  some  of  the 
Catholic  festivals,  but  to  have  them  celebrated  on  Sun- 
day.    The  Reformed  Church  gave  up  the  many  fast  and 
feast  days  of  the  Catholic  and  Lutheran  Churches.     She 
ordered  that  only  the  five  Scriptural  festivals  should  be 
celebrated,  Christmas,  Good  Friday,  Easter,  Ascension 
and  Pentecost.*     New  Year  was  also  ordered  to  be  cel- 
ebrated, but  it  is  not  called  Epiphany,  and  was  not  cel- 
ebrated as  a  festival  of  the  church  year.     The  Reformed 
Church  kept  only  the  festivals  that  emphasized  the  facts 
of  Christ's  life.    All  others  were  ignored.    The  S abbaths 
were  not  spoken  of  in  the  churches  as  the  first  after  ad- 
vent, epiphany,  trinity.     Lent  was  unknown.     Her  lit- 
urgies and  her  hymn-books  as  well  as  the  writings   of 
her  theologians,  reveal  her  freedom  from  the  use  of  the 
church  year.     She  emphasized  the  facts  of  Christ's  life, 
not  the  church  year. 

A  second  peculiarity  of  Reformed  Church  worship 
was  its  simplicity.  The  Lutherans  had  an  elaborate  rit- 
ual, but  in  the  Reformed  churches  the  service  was  as 
plain  as  possible.  This  simplicity  (einfachheit)  has  been 
noticed  by  her  historians,  as  Ebrard,    Heppe,    Sudhoff, 

■*Ebrard's  Church  History,  III.,  679. 


450         THE    REFORMED    CHURCH    OF   GERMANY. 

Gillett  and  others.*  The  baptismal  service  was  simpli- 
fied. Exorcism,  or  the  blowing  away  of  the  devil  at 
baptism,  was  done  away  with.  In  her  efforts  to  put 
away  everything  that  was  idolatrous  about  baptisraf  they 
went  so  far  as  to  put  the  fonts  out  of  the  churches.  They 
baptized  from  bowls.  And  to  still  further  emphasize 
their  simplicity,  they  generally  used  a  wooden  bowl. 
The  service  at  the  Lord's  supper  was  simplified.  The 
Lutheran  custom  of  holding  a  cloth  beneath  the  elements, 
of  candles,  robes  and  crosses  was  done  away  with. 
Bread  was  used  instead  of  wafers.  (The  introduction  of 
bread  at  the  Lord's  supper  was  generally  the  first  sign 
that  a  congregation  had  gone  over  to  the  Reformed 
faith.)     As  there  was  no  altar  in  the  churches,  there  was 

*Ebraid,  III.,  578.  Rev.  Dr.  J.  W.  Nevin  says :  "The  Re- 
formed confession  from  the  beginning,  if  we  except  the  Episco- 
pal portion  of  it  in  England,  for  reasons  which  it  is  not  necessary 
to  consider,  had  not  been  favorable  to  much  outward  form  or 
ritual  action  in  worship ;  and  its  liturgical  productions  have 
been  all  along  more  mechanical  than  organic,  more  in  sympathy 
with  the  pulpit  than  the  altar.  While  we  honor  the  constitu- 
tional character  of  the  Reformed  Church  in  the  general  view  of 
which  we  are  now  speaking,  we  ought  to  be  willing  to  admit 
that  it  carried  in  it  a  tendency  to  what  we  call  extreme  simplic- 
ity and  spiritualism  over  against  the  worship  of  tlie  Catholic 
Church,  and  that  this  stood  in  the  way  of  a  full  liturgical  cultus 
in  the  proper  sense  of  the  term.  The  disposition  to  get  away  as 
much  as  possible  from  the  outward  usages  of  the  Roman  Church, 
was  the  cause  of  extreme  views  in  the  opposite  direction.  There 
was  no  proper  insight  into  the  true  conception  of  a  liturgy  re- 
garded as  an  organic  scheme  of  worship,  and  no  active  sympa- 
thy, therefore,  with  the  idea  of  worship  in  any  such  form." 
— Liturgical  Question,  pages  41,  42  and  60. 

tSee  page  148,  note. 


OTHER    CUSTOMS.  451 

no  priest  at  the  service.  The  minister  did  not  stand  as 
did  the  priest,  with  his  back  to  the  congregation  and  his 
face  to  the  altar.  That  practice  was  directly  forbidden 
by  some  of  the  Reformed  churches.  He  was  called  "a 
servant"  of  the  word,  not  a  "priest"  ministering  at  the 
altar.  The  Reformed  did  not  consider  the  gown  neces- 
sary for  the  service.  Indeed  it  has  been  a  grave  ques- 
tion whether  the  rubric  in  the  Palatinate  liturgy  about 
gowns  is  not  a  prohibition  of  them,  and  an  order  for  the 
minister  to  preach  in  his  ordinary  clothes.*  In  connec- 
tion with  this  simplicity  of  the  service,  it  is  to  be  no- 
ticed that  the  Reformed  had  no  crosses  or  crucifixes  in 
their  churches.  They  put  them  out  of  the  churches. 
They  would  not  tolerate  a  cross  as  near  to  a  church  as 
the  grave  yard.  And  the  Lower  Rhine  Reformed 
Church  disciplined  a  member  who  worked  on  a  Catholic 
cross.  They  wished  it  understood  that  it  was  not  the 
cross  nor  the  crucifix,  but  the  crucified  whom  they  wor- 
shipped and  preached.  They  put  images  and  i)ictures 
out  of  the  churches.  They  looked  on  images  as  idols  and 
their  presence  as  a  violation  of  the  second  commandment. 
Landgrave  Maurice  of  Hesse  in  his  address  at  Marburg 
called  them  idols. f 

In  harmony  with  this  simplicity,   it  is  to  be   noticed 
that  the  Reformed  had  very  little  liturgy.     In  the  next 

*See  page  196,  note. 
fSee  page  363. 


452         THE    REFORMED   CHURCH    OF   GERMANY. 

century,  through  the  revival  of  pietism,  the  liturgical 
service  fell  into  disuse  in  great  measure  in  her  churches.* 
Her  mode  of  worship  was  simple.  There  were  no  elab- 
orate chantings.  The  Gloria  in  Excelsis  was  not  used. 
The  litany  was  not  used  in  her  Sabbath  services.  We 
have  been  surprised  to  find  that  there  was  no  repetition 
of  the  creed  by  the  congregation.  When  it  was  used, 
the  minister  repeated  it  himself.  She  did  not  have  a 
number  of  prayers  (before  or  after  the  sermon),  which 
were  broken  up  into  collects  by  the  response  of  Amen 
by  the  congregation.  There  was  only  a  single  brief 
prayer.  The  liturgy  did  not  require  the  congregation 
to  respond  with  an  Amen.  The  minister  made  the 
prayer,  and  closed  it  with  his  Amen.  Indeed,  the  Re- 
formed people  were  opposed  to  responses  in  church 
service.  This  is  shown  by  the  trouble  in  the  Reformed 
church  at  Frankford,  where,  when  the  Episcopalians 
tried  to  introduce  the  responses,  it  caused  great  oppo- 
sition. The  response  of  Amen  was  used  in  the  Episco- 
palian and  Methodist  Churches,  and  is,  therefore.  Epis- 
copalian and  Methodistic,  but  not  Reformed.  The  only 
responses  that  were  used  in  the  liturgy,  were  in  con- 
nection with  the  preparatory  service.  And  these  were 
introduced  because  the  church  wished,  before  admittting 
the  people  to  the  table  of  the  Lord,  to  be  assured  of 
their  faith.     So  the  congregation  was  questioned  by  the 

*Goebel's  History,  I.,  420.     Uoebel,  II.,  121-2. 


HER   OPPOSITION   TO    RITUALISM.  453 

minister  concerning  its  faith  ;  and  its  simple  response 
was  "yes.'^  The  liturgy  seemed  to  try  to  make  the 
response  as  simple  and  brief  as  possible.  The  liturgy 
aimed  to  make  the  preparatory  service  more  solemn,  by 
thus  making  it  different  from  the  other  services.*  Tt 
was  this  responsive  worship  and  altar  service  that  made 
the  Reformed  raise  such  a  storm  against  Hesshuss  at 
Heidelberg.  The  Reformed  people,  when  they  left  the 
Lutheran  Church,  were  opposed  to  these  forms.  And 
rather  than  attend  a  ritualistic  service,  they  stayed  at 
home ;  (they  did  this  in  the  Palatinate  during  Elector 
Lewis'  reign.)  Or  they  showed  their  abhorrence  of 
these  things  by  preferring  to  suffer  persecution  rather 
than  join  in  them  (as  liasco  did  in  Denmark,  when  the 
Reformed  preferred  exile  to  ritualism). 

These  and  other  facts  only  revealed  the  determined 
opposition  of  the  Reformed  to  ritualistic  services.  The 
Reformed  in  many  places  closed  organs,  and  introduced 
the  singing  uf  the  psalms  into  the  churches.  Many  of 
the  old  hymn  books  contained  nothing  but  psalms,  al- 
though others  added  hymns  to  the  psalms.  But  the 
psalms  constituted  the  basis  and  centre  of  the  book,  and 
not  the  church  year,  which  was  generally  unnoticed  in 
the  hymn  books.  These  psalms  sustained  the  Reformed 
in  persecution    and  linked    their  hearts  more   fully  to 

•■This  is  one  of  the  advantaj^es  of  using  a  liturgy  ou  sacra- 
mental occasions,  and  not  in  the  Sabbatli  service.  The  novelty 
of  the  liturgical  form  makes  the  sacramental  service  more 
impressive. 


454  THE    REFORMED    CHURCH    OF    GERMANY. 

God's  word.  The  early  Reformed  Church  was  Puri- 
tanic in  her  churches  and  in  her  services.  The  Re- 
formed service  was  very  simple.  It  consisted  simply  of 
an  invocation,  hymn,  prayer,  hymn,  sermon,  prayer, 
hymn,  and  benediction.  That  was  all.*  The  Reformed 
Church  of  Germany  to-day  is  not  ritualistic.  Our 
fathers  who  came  to  this  land,  did  not  use  a  liturgy  in 
their  Sabbath  services.  Our  German  churches  do  not 
use  the  liturgy  on  the  Sabbath.  These  facts  should 
clearly  reveal  the  position  of  the  Reformed  Church  in 
worship.  While  the  Lutheran  Church  aimed  at  ritual- 
ism, the  Reformed  aimed  at  Scriptural  simplicity. 

Finally,  the  Reformed  Church  was  spiritual  in  her 
cultus.  She  did  not  have  many  forms  or  an  elaborate 
ritual.  She  cared  not  for  the  formal ;  she  emphasized 
the  spiritual. t     She  aimed  to  produce  spirituality  in  her 

*The  very  existence  of  the  Reformed  Church  is  a  protest 
agcainst  an  elaborately  ritualistic  or  liturgical  Sabbath  service. 
When  she  left  the  Lutheran  Church,  she  left  the  Gloria,  the  lit- 
any, Lent,  etc.,  behind  her.  She  left  the  Lutheran  Church  so 
as  to  get  back  to  Scriptural  simplicity  of  service.  And  any  at- 
tempt to  introduce  them  into  the  Reformed  Church  is  going 
back  to  the  very  principles  which  she  then  renounced.  These 
customs  are  Lutheran,  not  Reformed.  The  introduction  ot 
these  things  into  the  Reformed  Church  is  a  bringing  of  Lu- 
theranism  into  the  Reformed  Church.  In  proportion  as  they 
are  introduced  they  are  a  departure  from  the  simplicity  of  the 
Reformed  faith. 

|Rev.  Dr.  J.  W.  Nevin  says  :  "  It  belongs,  as  we  all  know, 
to  the  Reformed  Church  to  represent  that  side  of  the  Christian 
life  in  which  the  inward,  the  free,  the  spiritual  in  religion  are 
asseited,  against  the  authority  of  the  merely  outward  in  every 
view."— Liturgical  Question,  page  41. 


FINAL    CONCLUSION.  455, 

merabers  by  tlie  spirituality  in  her  services.  And  the 
result  was  that  the  Reformed  Church  developed  a  fine 
spiritual  life  in  her  members.  The  word  of  God  was 
not  hidden  by  an  elaborate  ritual,  but  was  prominent ; 
and  "where  the  word  is,  there  is  life''  This  kind  of 
service  developed  in  the  Reformed  people  a  deep  per- 
sonal piety,  which  has  largely  characterized  the  Re- 
formed Church.  It  prepared  her  for  the  revival  of  the 
next  century.  It  also  imparted  strength  and  hope  to 
her,  by  which  she  was  able  to  bear  the  persecutions  of 
the  seventeenth  century. 

Scriptural,  simple,  spiritual — these  were  the  peculi- 
arities of  the  cultus  of  the  Reformed  Church.  The  pu- 
rity of  her  doctrine,  the  strictness  of  her  church  govern- 
ment, the  simplicity  of  her  services — these  guiding  prin- 
ciples have  been  the  key  to  her  success  in  the  past  and 
the  hope  of  her  prosperity  in  the  future.  She  has  be- 
queathed them  to  us  her  children,  bidding  us  perpetuate 
them  and  then  bequeath  them  to  generations  yet  unborn. 
May  we  be  faithful  to  the  sacred  trust,  and  thus  be 
worthy  of  our  fathers,  who  founded  the  Reformed 
Church. 


APPENDIX. 


30 


APPENDIX. 


The  Reformed  World. 

The  Reformed  Church  is  not  only  grand  in  history, 
but  also  great  in  numbers.  The  number  of  Reformed 
people  in  the  world,  at  the  present  time,  is  larger  than 
most  persons  suppose.  We  who  belong  to  the  Reformed 
Church  in  these  United  States,  are  not  alone  in  our 
faith.  But  we  are  part  of  a  great  and  continually  in- 
creasing army,  that  is  spread  all  over  the  earth.  There 
is  not  a  continent,  except  Australia,  which  does  not  have 
churches  on  it  bearing  the  Reformed  name.  We  will 
take  up  the  Churches  bearing  the  name  Reformed  or  who 
use  the  continental  Reformed  confessions  ;  and  endeavor 
to  gain  a  world-wide  view  of  the  state  of  the  Reformed 
Church  at  the  present  time.*  In  Europe  the  Reformed 
religion  is  the  state  religion  of  two  nations.  They  are 
not  large  countries,  it  is  true,  but  they  are  nations  which 
have  borne  a  worthy  part  in  the  world\s  history.  They 
are  Switzerland  and  Holland.    The  Reformed  faith  is  the 


*The  statistics  are  taken  from  "Herzog's  Enoyclopajdia," 
from  the  "  Minutes  of  the  Reformed  Alliance"  at  Belfast,  from 
"Sketchesof  European  Lands"  and  the  "Reformed  Pastor  of 
Germany,"  both  by  Rev.  Dr.  Zahn,  and  the  "Manual  of  the 
German  Reformed  Church,"  by  Rev.  Dr.  Dubbs. 


460         THE   REFORMED   CHURCH   OF   GERMANY. 

predominant  established  religion  of  these  lands.  Of  the 
rulers  of  the  earth,  the  king  of  Holland  is  a  member  of 
the  Dutch  Reformed  Church.  And  the  Emperor  of 
Germany  is  a  nominal  subscriber  to  our  creed  ;  for  the 
Hohenzollern  family  has  always  been  Reformed ;  and  in 
the  union  of  the  Churches  in  Germany,  each  preserved 
its  creed  intact.  Dr.  Schaff  is  authority  for  saying  that 
the  Heidelberg  Catechism  is  used  in  the  royal  family  in 
Berlin.  In  four  other  countries  in  Europe,  the  Re- 
formed faith  is  an  acknowledged,  but  not  the  prevailing 
religion  of  the  land.  But  it  is  acknowledged  by  the 
state,  and  to  a  greater  or  less  degree  financially  assisted 
by  the  government.  These  lands  are  Germany,  France, 
Austria  and  Russia. 

SWITZERLAND. 
Switzerland  is  the  mother  Church  of  the  Reformed 
faith.  There  Zwingli  started  the  Reformed  Church, 
and  Ecolampadius,  Calvin,  Bullinger  and  Beza  laid  its 
foundations.  The  Protestants  of  Switzerland  are  all 
Reformed.  Switzerland  is  the  United  States  of  Europe. 
She  has  twenty-two  cantons.  A  peculiarity  of  the  Swiss 
is  that  each  canton  has  its  own  individual  church.  This 
cantonal  church  life  has  produced  great  diversities  be- 
tween the  Churches.  It  has  engendered  a  lack  of  unity 
and  been  a  source  of  weakness.  There  are  fifteen  cantonal 
churches  in  the  Protestant  cantons.  This  diversity  in 
the  Swiss  Reformed  Church  is  also  made  all  the  greater 


THE   REFORMED    WORLD.  461 

when  we  remember  that  its  people  speak  three  lan- 
guages— German,  French  and  Italian  ;  and  there  is  a 
Reformed  church  in  each  of  these  different  languages. 
Zurich  has  always  been  the  heart  of  German  Protestant 
Switzerland.  But  Zurich,  alas,  has  become  the  home  of 
the  rationalistic  or  liberal  theology.  It  is  true,  there 
are  evangelical  ministers  there  (the  Munster  and  the 
Fraumunster  are  evangelical,  especially  the  latter,  while 
St.  Peter's  is  rationalistic),  but  the  university  is  free  or 
liberal  in  its  theology.  Basel,  however,  with  its  Mis- 
sion-house ;  and  Schaff hausen,  are  the  leading  evangeli- 
cal cantons.  Berne  seems  to  be  divided  between  the 
rationalists  and  the  evangelicals,  with  a  leaning  toward 
the  latter.  Thus  the  free  thinking  of  rationalism  has 
made  sad  inroads  into  the  old  evangelical  faith.  But 
the  Evangelicals  are  very  active,  especially  at  Basel. 
They  have  founded  four  schools  to  provide  the  cantonal 
government  schools  with  evangelical  teachers — a  very 
important  effort.  They  have  also  attempted  to  evan- 
gelize in  rationalistic  parishes,  but  the  movement  is  as 
yet  only  in  its  infancy.  The  development  of  the  pietism 
of  German  Switzerland  gathered  itself  around  pastor 
Schintz  of  Zurich.  Prof.  Schweizer  of  Zurich  is  the 
leader  of  the  free  or  rationalistic  party.  He  is  a  strong 
adherent  of  Schleiermacher.  Riggenbach  of  Basel  and 
Guder  of  Berne  are  prominent  among  the  Evangelicals. 
In  French  Reformed  Switzerland  there   is  a  somewhat 


462         THE    REFORMED   CHURCH   OF   GERMANY. 

different  development.  Over  against  the  rationalism  in 
the  state  Churches  and  the  interference  of  state  authority, 
there  have  arisen  small  Free  Churches  along-side  of  the 
state  Churches.  There  are  three  of  these  small  Free 
Churches  in  the  cantons  of  Geneva,  Vaud  and  Neuf- 
chatel.  The  state  Church  of  Geneva  has  almost  en- 
tirely gone  over  to  rationalism.  And  the  Venerable 
Company  of  pastors,  originated  by  Calvin,  no  longer 
believe  in  orthodoxy,  to  say  nothing  of  Calvinism.  It 
is  a  sad  fact  that  rationalism  should  be  so  active  in  the 
homes  of  Zwingli  and  Calvin.  But  it  is  an  interesting 
sign  of  the  times  that  the  Free  Church  of  Scotland  has 
founded  a  church  in  Geneva  to  bring  back  to  its  citi- 
zens the  Calvinism  their  fathers  loved,  but  which  they 
have  forgotten.  The  state  Church  of  Neufchatel  is 
evangelical,  and  the  state  Church  of  Vaud  partly  so. 
The  Free  Churches  are  the  aggressive  forces  in  the  can- 
tons. The  Free  Church  of  Geneva  is  a  small  one,  hav- 
ing only  700  members.  But  it  has  a  wide  influence  in 
the  city,  and  has  been  made  famous  by  such  names  as 
D'Aubigne  and  Malan.  The  Free  Church  of  Vaud  is 
larger,  numbering  about  4,000,  and  has  been  made  fa- 
mous by  the  influence  of  Vinet.  The  Free  Church  of 
Neufchatel  has  600  members,  and  contains  the  great 
evangelical  theologian  of  Switzerland,  Godet.  There  is 
also  in  Neufchatel  an  Independent  Church,  so  that  there 
are  three  Reformed  churches  in  that  canton. 


THE   REFORMED   WORLD.  463 

We  now  turn  to  the  Italian  Churches  of  Switzer- 
land. A  very  interesting  discovery  of  a  hidden  Re- 
formed church  has  been  made  within  the  last  few  years. 
And  yet  it  is  a  church  with  ancient  history.  During 
the  sixteenth  century  the  Reformed  doctrines  were  car- 
ried over  the  Splugen  pass,  and  found  a  home  in  the 
Italian  mountain  villages  of  the  Grisons  and  in  the  city 
of  Chiavenna,  where  Zanchius  preached  to  a  congrega- 
tion. A  terrible  persecution  arose,  and  the  Reformed 
were  driven  away.  But  they  continued  to  exist,  and  a 
few  years  ago  sent  to  the  Waldensees  of  Italy  for  an 
Italian  pastor.  A  delegate  of  the  Waldensians  visited 
them  and  found  in  the  canton  of  the  Grisons,  in  the  Ber- 
nina  and  Bregaglia  passes,  2,384  members  of  the  Italian 
Reformed  Church.  While  also  along  the  St.  Gothard 
pass,  at  Biasca  and  Locarno,  Reformed  churches  have 
been  established  among  the  Italians.  Thus  we  find  there 
are  fifteen  Reformed  Churches  in  Switzerland  speaking 
three  languages,  and  numbering  in  all  1,667,109  ad- 
herents. 

FRANCE. 

The  next  land  where  the  Reformed  doctrines  found 
a  home  was  France.  Calvin  from  Geneva  influenced 
France  and  all  French  speaking  people.  In  spite  of 
her  awful  history,  in  spite  of  a  St.  Bartholomew  and  a 
revocation  of  the  Edict  of  Nantes,  the  old  Huguenot 
Church  has  continued  to  exist.      And  she  has  not  only 


464         THE   REFORMED  CHURCH   OF   GERMANY. 

continued  to  exist,  but  she  has  wonderfully  grown  dur- 
ing the  last  century.  When,  at  the  beginning  of  this 
century.  Napoleon  gave  her  recognition,  there  were  only 
180  churches,  fifty  of  them  being  pastorless.  Since 
then  she  has  grown,  until  there  are  720  pastors,  and 
there  would  be  1200,  if  Alsace  and  Lorraine  had  not 
been  separated  from  France  by  the  Germans.  The 
Huguenot  Church  is  somewhat  crippled  by  its  connec- 
tion with  the  state,  and  still  further  hampered  by  a 
rationalistic  party  within  it.  But  the  Evangelicals  are 
largely  in  the  majority.  Out  of  702  pastors,  512  are 
orthodox  and  190  liberal.  The  French  government 
finally,  in  1872,  called  a  General  Synod  of  the  Reformed 
churches.  This  was  the  first  General  Synod  that  had 
assembled  at  the  call  of  the  government  since  1659, 
when  the  last  National  Synod  was  held  at  Loudun,  at 
the  command  of  Louis  XIY.,  who  refused  to  call  an- 
other synod,  because  they  were  too  expensive,  but  really 
because  he  wanted  to  break  up  the  unity  of  the  Protest- 
ants. This  first  synod  was  held  at  Paris,  in  1872.  In 
this  synod  the  Evangelicals  gained  the  victory,  and 
compelled  a  subscription  to  the  old  creeds  of  the  Church, 
which  the  rationalists  did  not  want.  But  as  the  Lib- 
erals protested  against  the  decisions  of  this  synod,  no 
more  synods  were  held  by  the  government,  although 
these  synods  were  to  have  been  held  annually.  The 
Evangelicals   waited,    and   finding  that  the  state  would 


THE   REFORMED    WORLD.  465 

not  call  any  more  synods,  they  determined  not  to  be 
outwitted.  They  proceeded  to  form  a  synod  of  their 
own.  They  resolved  to  organize  an  unofficial  synod, 
with  officers,  classes  and  committees,  which  was  to  meet 
every  three  years.  They  thus  outwitted  the  state  and 
the  rationalists.  The  first  meeting  of  this  unofficial 
synod  was  held  at  Paris,  the  second  at  Marseilles  in 
1881  ;  the  third  has  just  been  held  in  St.  Quentin. 
Out  of  the  700  pastors,  425  have  united  with  this 
synod.  Thus  the  State  Church,  the  old  historic  Hugu- 
enot Church,  is  revealing  new  life,  and  renewing  her 
youth.     She  numbers  550,000  adherents. 

In  addition  to  this  State  Church,  a  Free  Church  has 
arisen.  It  was  started  in  1848  by  Frederic  Monod, 
who  was  compelled  to  leave  the  State  Church  by  the 
government  and  the  rationalists.  It  is  a  very  aggress- 
ive body,  and  numbers,  we  think,  about  14,000.  The 
state  churches  in  the  North  of  France  and  Normandy 
have  suffered  less  from  rationalism  than  the  churches  in 
the  South.  The  only  rationalistic  church  in  Paris  is 
the  Oratoire.  Bersier,  Theodore  Monod,  Decoppet  of 
Paris,  and  Prof.  Jean  Monod  of  Moutauban  are  the 
leaders  of  the  orthodox  in  the  State  Church  ;  Coquerel 
of  the  rationalists.  Prominent  among  the  free  church 
leaders  is  Pressense.  Indeed,  it  is  remarkable  how- 
many  prominent  men  the  Reformed  Church  has  pro- 
duced for  the  republic.       Although   the  Reformed  con- 


466         THE    REFORMED   CHURCH   OF   GERMANY. 

stitute  a  very  small  part  of  the  population,  yet  they 
have  given  a  President  to  France  in  Thiers.  And  in 
one  of  the  Cabinets  a  majority  were  Protestants.  The 
McAll  mission,  the  wonder  of  the  last  decade,  has 
greatly  aided  the  Reformed  Church  of  France,  by  stir- 
ring up  her  own  members,  and  by  making  converts  for 
ber  from  Catholicism.  In  no  European  land  does  the 
outlook  seem  so  bright  for  the  Reformed  Church  as  in 
France.  Of  all  Catholic  countries  France  is  drifting 
fastest  away  from  the  Catholic  Church.  Mr.  Reveil- 
laud,  the  distinguished  editor  and  evangelist,  after  a 
thorough  personal  investigation,  says  that  out  of  the 
ten  million  French  electors,  six  million  acknowledge 
the  moral  and  religious  superiority  of  the  Reformed 
religion,  and  passively  desire  its  triumph.  In  this 
drift  from  Catholicism,  the  people  who  tend  to  Protest- 
antism, will  naturally  drift  into  the  Huguenot,  the  old 
historic  Church  of  France.  It  would  not  be  surpris- 
ing, if  within  the  next  century  the  Reformed  Church  of 
France  would  double  herself. 

HOLLAND. 

Holland  comes  next  in  the  history  of  the  Reformed 
Church.  In  the  sixteenth  and  seventeenth  centuries 
the  Reformed  faith  had  no  more  devoted  adherents  and 
valiant  defenders  than  the  Dutch.  Alas,  to  what  a  sad 
condition  has  the  Dutch  Church  fallen,  in  these  latter 
days.     More  than  any  other  Reformed  Church  she  has 


THE    REFORMED    WORLD.  467 

drifted  from  the  faith,  for  which  her  fathers  bled.  Ra- 
tionalism, under  the  name  of  Modernism,  has  swept 
over  the  land.  What  was  denied  by  the  Synod  of 
Dort,  has  now  come  to  pass.  Oh,  for  another  Synod  of 
Dort,  to  declare  the  orthodoxy  of  the  Holland  Church. 
Better  a  stiff  orthodoxy  than  a  limp  rationalism.  One 
fifth  of  all  her  congregations  are  vacant,  and  some  va- 
cant for  fifteen  or  more  years.  Many  of  the  congrega- 
tions would  rather  have  no  pastor  than  a  rationalist. 
It  is  a  curious  illustration,  where  the  people  are  more 
orthodox  than  their  ministers.  Of  her  1200  pastors, 
600  are  Moderns,  300  others  belong  to  the  Groningen 
school,  which,  while  not  rationalistic,  is  only  semi- 
Evangelical,  being  semi-Pelagian  and  semi-Arian.  The 
remaining  300  pastors  are  orthodox.  But  they  are 
divided  into  two  parties,  one  of  whom  is  Evangelical 
and  refuses  to  receive  any  creed,  like  the  Belgic  Confes- 
sion ;  while  the  other  is  composed  of  the  Confessionalists, 
and  demands  a  strict  adherence  to  the  old  creeds  con- 
firmed by  the  Synod  of  Dort.  A  movement  has  re- 
cently taken  place  in  Holland,  which  has  challenged 
the  attention  of  the  world,  and  the  sympathy  of  the 
other  Reformed  Churches.  The  Evangelicals  in  1879 
organized  a  free  university  at  Amsterdam,  under  the 
supervision  of  Drs.  Hoedemaker  and  Kuyper.  Its  aim 
was  to  indoctrinate  students  with  the  orthodox  doctrines. 
This  university  became  quite  prosperous.     But  the  con- 


468        THE  REFORMED   CHURCH  OF   GERMANY. 

flict  between  these  Evangelicals  and ,  the  rationalists 
deepened.  The  state  churches  refused  to  license  the 
graduates  of  this  unoflBcial  university.  Finally  the 
Evangelicals  were  driven  out  of  the  State  Church,  the 
doors  of  the  New  Church  of  Amsterdam  (which  had 
always  been  their  rendezvous),  being  locked  against 
them.  Seventy-five  ministers,  elders  and  deacons,  and 
15,000  people  were  driven  out  of  the  church  at  Amster- 
dam ;  two  pastors  and  3,500  people  at  Rotterdam.  So 
a  congress  was  called  at  Amsterdam,  in  January,  1887, 
to  organize  this  new  movement.  Two  hundred  and 
fifty  delegates  were  present  from  150  congregations,  and 
there  were  large  audiences  and  great  interest.  Thirty- 
five  churches  have  left  the  State  Church.  It  is  too 
early  to  count  the  results  of  this  movement.  It  will, 
however,  carry  many  thousands  out  of  the  State  Church 
into  this  new  organization,  which  will  either  become  a 
separate  Church,  or  else  affiliate  with  the  Christian  Re- 
formed Church  of  Holland.  This  movement  is  not  a 
schism  or  a  disruption,  but  a  return  to  the  old  faith 
guaranteed  to  the  Church,  before  the  constitution  of  the 
Netherlands  was  altered  by  the  government  in  1816. 

The  Christian  Reformed  Church  of  Holland  is  com- 
posed of  dissenters,  who  left  the  State  Church  in  1834, 
because  of  the  rationalism.  They  have  become  strictly 
orthodox,  and  are  great  Psalm  singers.  They  number 
130,000  members  and  200,000  adherents,  with  a  theo- 
logical seminary  at  Kampen. 


THE    REFORMED    WORLD.  469 

There  is  also  a  small  Walloon  Reformed  Church  in 
Holland,  composed  of  descendants  of  Belgians,  who  did 
not  dare  return  to  their  land  in  the  sixteenth  century. 
The  Walloon  Church  numbers  about  10,258. 

The  present  condition  of  the  Dutch  Reformed 
Church  is  one  of  fermentation  and  division.  God  is 
undoubtedly  ordering  all  things  for  a  wise  end.  That 
end  will  be  his  glory.  But  how  he  will  bring  it  about, 
time  alone  will  reveal.  There  are  in  Holland  2,167,110 
adherents  to  the  Reformed  Churches,  of  whom  1,956,852 
are  in  the  State  Church.  There  are  seven  Missionary 
Societies,  which  have  missions  in  the  various  Dutch 
colonies.  Of  these,  the  Rotterdam  Society  have  done 
the  greatest  work.  In  their  struggle  for  the  purity  of 
the  faith,  these  Dutch  brethren  need  the  sympathy  and 
the  prayers  of  all  their  Reformed  brethren. 
GERMANY. 

Later  than  Switzerland,  France  and  Holland,  Ger- 
many received  the  Reformed  faith.  Although  it  had 
been  introduced  much  earlier,  it  did  not  become  promi- 
nent until  the  conversion  of  Elector  Frederick  III. 
It  was  his  defence  at  Augsburg  which  caused  its  recog- 
nition by  the  state.  Before  the  Thirty  Years'  War,  per- 
haps one-fourth  of  Germany  was  Reformed.  But  per- 
secution and  other  unfortunate  events  have  reduced  her 
numbers.  A  part  of  the  Reformed  Church  has  been 
swallowed  up   in   the    Evangelical   Church  of  Prussia, 


470         THE    REFORMED    CHURCH    OF   GERMANY.       - 

which  is  a  union  of  Lutherans  and  Reformed.  There 
are  about  one  million  and  a  third  of  adherents  to  the 
Reformed  faith  in  Germany  (at  the  present  time). 

The  ecclesiastical  condition  of  Germany  is  very 
much  the  same  as  in  Switzerland.  Each  land  or  county 
had  its  own  Reformed  Church.  The  result  is  that  there 
were  many  Reformed  Churches  in  Germany  without 
any  bond  or  connection  between  them.  The  Reformed 
adherents  are,  therefore,  isolated  and  scattered,  from  the 
Rhine  to  Silesia,  and  from  Pomerania  to  Bavaria.  The 
various  provinces  of  Germany  were  united  into  one 
great  empire  in  1871.  But  while  there  has  been  ^  po- 
litical union,  there  has  been  no  religious  union  of  the 
Reformed  Churches.  Only  within  the  last  few  years 
has  there  been  an  effort  to  bring  the  scattered  Reformed 
Churches  together,  by  the  organization  of  a  Reformed 
Bund  or  Alliance,  which  holds  its  second  meeting  at 
Detmold  in  Lippe  this  summer.  Several  causes  are 
forcing  the  Reformed  of  Germany  together  at  the  pres- 
ent time.  One  is  the  rise  of  confessionalism.  The 
Lutherans  in  the  Evangelical  Church  are  becoming 
more  pronounced  Lutherans.  And  the  Reformed,  over 
against  them,  are  led  to  emphasize  their  position.  An- 
other cause  is  the  increasing  tide  of  piety  that  is  begin-, 
ning  to  reveal  itself  in  Germany,  which  is  forcing  the 
Churches  to  take  a  positive  instead  of  a  negative  posi- 
tion.    And  lastly,  the  growing  political  influence  of  the 


THE    REFORMED    WORLD.  471 

Catholic  Church  is  forcing  the  Reformed,  who  have 
always  been  at  the  antipodes  of  Romanism,  to  unite  for 
common  protection.  The  growing  influence  of  the  new 
rationalistic  school  of  Rischl  is  urging  the  Reformed  to 
unite  for  defence.  The  Hammerstine  propositions  to 
give  more  liberty  to  the  Church,  and  also  more  endow- 
ment to  her,  too,  will  aid  the  Reformed.  (For  the 
Catholics  in  Prussia  receive  as  much  state  help  as  the 
Protestants,  although  they  are  only  half  as  strong.)  As 
a  result  of  all  these  movements,  the  Reformed  of  Ger- 
many are  gradually  uniting  their  forces.  As  some  one 
says :  "  The  destruction  of  Calvinism  in  Germany 
means  the  ultimate  destruction  of  Protestantism." 

Taking  up  the  parts  of  Germany  in  detail,  we  no- 
tice, there  are  Reformed  congregations  at  the  following 
prominent  places.  (We  have  not  time  to  give  the 
country  congregations.)  In  Eastern  Germany,  at  Ko- 
nigsberg,  3500,  (also  a  French  oiuirch  300,)  Danzic 
2500,  Stettin  700,  (French  500,)  Breslau  1500.  In 
Berlin  the  German  Reformed  churches,  including  the 
cathedral  (which  was  formerly  Reformed),  have  gone 
into  the  United  or  Evangelical  Church.  But  there  still 
remain  two  Reformed  churches.  One  is  the  Bohe- 
mian church  which  was  formed  by  the  Bohemians  who 
fled  from  Bohemia  in  1732.  Its  pastor  is  Hapke,  and 
it  is  called  the  Bethlehem  church.  The  other  is  a 
French  Reformed    church,  formed  by   French  refugees 


472         THE   REFORMED   CHURCH   OF   GERMANY. 

I 
I 

in  fleeing  from  the  revocation  of  the  Edict  of  Nantes.  | 

The  Bohemian  church  numbers  1600,  and  the  French  j 

church  6000.*     In  Leipsic  there  is  a  Reformed   church  I 

of  3367,  and  at  Dresden  a  church  with  1800.     Most  of  ! 
Anhalt  has  gone  into  the  Evangelical    Church.      But 

there  are  still    38,000  Reformed  in  the  county  of  An-  ; 
halt-Kotha.      There   are   quite  a  number  of  Reformed 

churches  around    Magdeburg,  composed  of  descendants  j 

of  French  refugees  in  the  seventeenth  century.     Mag-  ; 
deburg  has  5000  German,  1020  Walloon,  268  French. 

Halle  has  4500.     Then  comes  the  Lower  Saxony  Con-  ! 

federation  of  Reformed  churches,  of  which  Dr.  Brandes        1 

1 
of  Goettiugen  is  the   president.      Goettingen  has  1500,         1 

Brunswick   4000,  and    Hanover    1800.      This   Lower        I 
Saxon  Confederation  is  the  only  body  that  has  preserved 
the  strict  presbyterian  form  of  government  for  two  hun- 
dred years ;    the   others    having   been    modified  by  the         ! 
consistorial  form,  or  having  been  governed  under  Luth-         \ 
eran  superintendents.       At  Altona,  opposite  Hamburg, 
is  a  congregation   of  1000,   the   descendants  of  French 
refugees.       Hamburg  has  a  German    Reformed    church         | 
of  5000,  and  a  French  of  100.      Bremen   still  remains 
strongly  Reformed,  there  being   24,399  in  the  city,  and         \ 
16,195  in  the  land.      East    Friesland,    which  has  been         j 
included  in  the  Hanoverian  Reformed  Church,  has  ever         ] 

*0f  the  35  parishes  iu  Berlin  in  the  Evangelical  Church,  only  j 

five  are  served  by  liberal  preachers  ;  and  of  the  total  80  preach-  1 

ers  in  these  parishes,  about  twenty  are  liberal  or  rationalistic.  | 


THE   REFORMED   WORLD.  473 

been  a  stronghold  of  the  Reformed  faith.     It  is  divided 
into  four  consistorial  districts,  whose  centres  are  at  Em- 
dem  and  at  Aurich.     Rev.  Dr.  Bartels,  the  president  of 
the  synod,  resides  at   Aurich.      Bentheim,  one  of  the 
Reformed  districts  of  the  Hanoverian   Church,   is  in- 
tensely Reformed.     An  important  movement  has  lately 
taken  place  in  this  Hanoverian  Reformed  Church.    The 
government   finally   authorized  its  120  congregations  to 
assemble  in  its  first  synod  in  1881.     Besides  these,  there 
is  an   Old    Reformed    Church    of  Bentheim    and    East 
Friesland  with  2400  adherents,  which  is  independent  of 
the  state.     Lippe  is  a  strong  Reformed  land,  and  is  the 
only    country    which    retains  the  classes  in  its  govern- 
ment.     Dr.  Theleman    is   the   Consistorialrath  of  the 
Lippe    Reformed  Churches.      In  its  three  classes   are 
112,994  members.     The  Church  of  Hesse  is  united  with 
the  Lutheran  in  the  Evangelical    Church,    and  the  Re- 
formed   are    overshadowed     by    Lutheran    authority. 
Hesse   has   381,652  Reformed    members.      But  she  is 
drifting   toward    Lutheranism.      Nassau  has  9800  Re- 
formed, but  she  has  tried  to  forget   that   she  ever  was 
Reformed.      At  Frankford  there  is  a   German   church 
with  7000,   and  a  French    church    with    350  members. 
In  Bavaria  there  is  a   group  of  nine  churches,    mainly 
composed  of  refugees  from  France,  which  is  presided  over 
by  Dr.  Ebrard  of  Erlangen.     There  are  two  churches  at 
Erlangen  and  one  at  Nuremberg.      The  recent  Franco- 
31 


474         THE   REFORMED   CHURCH    OF   GERMANY. 

German  war  has  brought  back  to  Germany  the  large 
Reformed  Church  of  Alsace-Lorraine,  with  its  five  con- 
sistories, and  a  membership  of  48,819.  The  Reformed 
church  at  Strasburg,  with  922  members,  belongs  to  it. 
But  the  centre  of  the  Reformed  Churches  of  Germany 
are  the  Rhine  Provinces  and  Westphalia.  There  are 
300,000  in  the  Rhine  Provinces,  and  135,000  in  West- 
phalia. These  are  intensely  Reformed,  and  have  re- 
tained their  Reformed  customs  and  zeal.  Some  of  the 
congregations  are  very  large.  Elberfeld  has  33,000, 
Miihlheim  30,000,  Barmen  15,000  (all  near  Cologne). 
There  is  a  Netherland  Reformed  church  at  Elberfeld 
which  was  organized  in  this  century,  because  the  Re- 
formed opposed  a  liturgical  service  which  the  Prussian 
government  tried  to  force  on  them.  The  Heidelberg 
Catechism  is  still  in  use  in  the  Reformed  Church  of 
East  and  West  Prussia,  Pomerania,  Brandenberg,  Sax- 
ony, Hanau,  the  Rhine  Provinces,  Westphalia,  Bremen, 
Lippe,  Bavaria,  but  not  in  Hesse  and  IS'assau.  There 
are  only  three  or  four  Reformed  professors  in  Germany, 
where  there  used  to  be  five  Reformed  universities. 
These  are  Professors  KraflPt  at  Bonn,  Achelis  at  Mar- 
burg, and  Sieffert  at  Erlangen.  Dr.  Ebrard  is  honorary 
professor  at  Erlangen.  The  Reformed  ministers  of 
Germany  may  be  catalogued  in  four  classes.  At  the 
one  extreme  are  the  rationalists  or  liberals.  They  are 
fewer  in  number  than  in   the   Lutheran  or  Evangelical 


THE   REFORMED    WORLD.  475 

Church,  For  the  Reformed  Church  has  been  protected 
from  heterodoxy  by  its  reverence  for  the  Scriptures 
and  its  catechetical  preaching.  At  the  other  extreme 
are  the  high  Calvinists,  who  are  so  narrow  in  their 
views ;  that  all  who  are  not  high  Calvinists,  are  not  Re- 
formed. This  strict  interpretation  of  the  Reformed  doc- 
trine is  not  to  be  wondered  at,  because  they  are  surrounded 
by  so  much  rationalism.  A  prominent  representative 
of  this  party  is  Dr.  Zahn  of  Stuttgart,  one  of  the  best 
historical  writers  of  the  Reformed  Church.  Between 
these  two  extremes  there  are  two  classes.  They  are 
both  Calvinists.  The  one  rather  emphasizes  Calvin's 
doctrine  of  predestination,  the  other  his  doctrine  and 
cultus  of  the  Lord's  supper.  The  first  are  strict  predes- 
tinarian,  but  are  broad  in  their  sympathies,  and  will 
fraternize  with  others,  even  if  they  are  not  quite  so 
Calvin istic,  provided  they  are  orthodox  and  evangelical. 
The  second  class  are  moderate  on  predestination  (sub- 
lapsarian),  but  are  Calvinistic  in  the  Lord's  supper  and 
in  that  simplicity  of  cultus,  which  has  always  charac- 
terized the  Reformed  Church.  Dr.  Calaminus  of  El- 
berfeld  and  Dr.  Brandes  of  Goettingen  are  representa- 
tives of  the  former,  and  Dr.  El^rard  of  the  latter.  The 
union  of  these  two — the  old  school  and  the  new  school 
Calvinists — will  make  the  Reformed  Alliance  of  Ger- 
many strong.  This  alliance  will  produce  great  results, 
if,  avoiding  controversy,  they  insist  on   orthodoxy  of 


476         THE    REFORMED    CHURCH    OF   GERMANY. 

doctrine,  simplicity  of  service  and  presbyterianism  of 
government. 

AUSTRIA. 

Austria,  although  the  most  bigoted  Catholic  laud  in 
Europe  (except  Spain),  yet  nurtures  within  herself  a  large 
Reformed  population.  The  Austrian  Reformed  Churches 
may  be  divided  into  two  sections — the  Reformed  Church 
of  Austria  proper  and  the  Reformed  Church  of  Hun- 
gary. In  the  superintendency  of  Vienna  there  are  five 
churches  with  6,433  adherents.  In  Bohemia  there  are 
forty-seven  churches  with  69,298  adherents ;  in  Mora- 
via twenty-five  churches  with  40,089,  and  in  Galicia 
four  churches  with  4,944  members.  Together  there  are 
124,764  adherents  to  the  Reformed  Church  in  Austria. 
At  Vienna  there  is  a  Reformed  professor  in  the  Uni- 
versity, Prof.  Bohl,  who  is  a  very  high  Calvinist.  A 
new  congregation  has  been  planted  at  Bregenz  in  the 
Tyrol.  But  the  Church  that  interests  us  the  most,  is 
the  Bohemian  Churgh.  In  spite  of  terrible  and  con- 
tinued persecutions,  this  Church  has  continued  to  exist, 
and  is  to-day  renewing  her  energies.  Although  perse- 
cuted for  nearly  200  years,  yet  when  the  Emperor  of 
Austria  granted  the  Edict  of  Toleration,  at  the  end  of 
the  last  century,  the  number  of  Reformed  people  that 
seemed,  like  the  Israelites,  to  come  out  of  the  caves  and 
dens  of  the  earth,  was  surprising.  And  now  there  is  a 
small,  but  aggressive  and  growing  Reformed  Church  in 


THE   REFORMED    WORLD.  477 

Bohemia,  for  which  the  Reformed  and  Presbyterian  Al- 
liance at  Belfast  decided  to  raise  25,000  dollars.  This 
Bohemian  Reformed  Church,  about  a  year  ago,  formally 
adopted  the  Heidelberg  Catechism  as  its  standard.  A 
few  years  ago  a  member  of  the  Reformed  Church  was 
elected  Mayor  of  Prague,  which  reveals  the  growing  in- 
fluence of  the  Church.  There  is,  however,  a  certain 
amount  of  rationalism  in  the  Church.  But  some  of  the 
Reformed  theological  students  are  being  educated  in 
Scotland,  and  they  are  introducing  the  Anglo-Saxon 
aggressiveness  into  the  Church. 

The  Reformed  Church  of  Hungary  is  a  much  larger 
Church.  This  Church  has  also  suifered  great  persecu- 
tions, but  was  able,  owing  to  the  peculiar  position  of 
Hungary  in  the  Austrian  government,  to  gain  greater  in- 
dependence. It  was  divided  into  five  superintendencies, 
but  they  were  not  united  into  a  central  body,  as  the 
Catholic  rulers  did  not  wish  the  Reformed  to  have  the 
strength  of  unity.  Finally,  in  1881,  a  General  Synod 
was  ordered  by  the  government  at  Debreczin,  which  is 
the  heart  of  the  Reformed  Church  of  Hungary  and  the 
seat  of  a  theological  seminary,  of  which  Prof.  Balogh  is 
an  honored  representative.  (This  congregation  at  De- 
breczin is  very  large,  having  36,000  members  and  180 
elders.)  Since  this  General  Synod  the  Hungarian  Church 
has  entered  on  a  new  era  of  life  and  activity.  Her  unity 
has  developed  new  strength  and  energy.     This  synod 


478         THE   REFORMED    CHURCH    OF   GERIMANY. 

chauged  the  name  of  the  Church  from  the  ^Church  of 
the  Helvetic  Confession'  to  the  ^Evangelical  Reformed' 
Church.  The  Heidelberg  Catechism,  which  had  been 
purged  by  the  Catholic  government  of  the  30th,  57th 
and  80th  questions,  was  again  printed  in  1885  in  its 
original  form.  In  almost  all  the  churches  there  is  cate- 
chetical preaching  on  Sabbath  afternoons.  There  are  1,- 
909  ministers  and  2,090,252  adherents.  The  Hungarian 
prime  minister  is  a  member  of  the  Reformed  Church. 
He  has  succeeded  in  having  a  bill  passed  through  the 
Hungarian  Parliament,  by  which  the  Reformed  Church 
is  to  be  represented  by  five  ministers  and  five  elders,  so 
as  to  counterpoise  the  Catholic  and  Greek  prelates  who 
have  seats  in  that  body.  The  Church  has  been  tinc- 
tured with  rationalism,  but  the  orthodox  and  evangelical 
wing  is  growing.  The  Church  supports  a  mission  in  Rou- 
mania  (which  has  seven  organized  churches),  and  a  Sla- 
vonic-Syrmisch  mission.  This  Church,  if  revived  and 
developed,  has  a  great  mission  before  it  in  the  conver- 
sion of  the  Slavonic  races.  If  the  Bohemian  and  Rus- 
sian Reformed  were  united  with  the  Hungarian  Re- 
formed in  earnest  effort,  a  great  work  might  be  expected 
among  the  Slavonic  races  of  Turkey,  and  in  Russia,  the 
great  nation  of  the  future. 

RUSSIA. 
Russia,   though    belonging  to  the  Greek    faith,   yet 
contains  in  it  a  small,  but  influential  Reformed  Church. 


THE    REFORMED   WORLD.  471) 

The  Russian  Reformed  Church  may  be  divided  into 
three  groups — the  Polish,  Lithuanian,  and  the  central 
consistory.  The  Reformed  Church  of  Poland,  founded 
by  John  A.  Lasco  in  the  sixteenth  century,  notwith- 
standing all  the  persecutions  of  the  Jesuits,  still  con- 
tinues to  exist,  and  numbers  7000  adherents.  It  con- 
tains nine  congregations  under  the  consistory  at  War- 
saw. Its  president  is  Tolande.  The  Warsaw  congre- 
gation, which  numbers  2245,  has  erected  a  beautiful 
church.  Most  of  the  congregations  are  Polish  and 
German,  but  the  congregation  at  Zelow  (numbering 
2400  members,)  is  Bohemian.  This  Polish  Reformed 
Church  is  a  struggling  Church.  "  Had  Poland  become 
Reformed,  instead  of  Jesuit,  the  words  ^  Finis  Poloniae' 
had  not  been  spoken.^' 

The  Reformed  Church  of  Lithuania  is  composed  of 
fourteen  congregations.  Most  of  the  congregations  are 
very  small,  except  the  church  at  Birsen,  which  numbers 
6000  souls.  There  is  a  Reformed  gymnasium  at 
Wilna. 

The  remaining  part  of  the  Russian  Reformed  Church 
is  spread  through  European  Russia,  from  Riga  and  St. 
Petersburg  on  the  North  to  Odessa  and  the  Volga  on 
the  South.  The  largest  of  these  churclies  is  at  St.  Pe- 
tersburg, where  the  German  church  has  1047  communi- 
cants, and  3000  adherents.  At  Moscow,  under  pastor 
Neif,  there  is  a  congregation  of  2000  adherents.     At  the 


480         THE   REFOKMED   CHURCH    OF   GERMANY. 

head  of  the  Reformed  consistory  is  Dr.  Dalton  of  St. 
Petersburg,  one  of  the  most  prominent  ministers  in  Eu- 
rope. His  church  is  a  fountain  of  usefulness  in  the 
Russian  capital.  The  church  building  is  a  veritable 
cathedral,  having  cost  180,000  dollars ;  and  when 
burned  soon  after,  it  was  erected  at  an  additional  cost  of 
35,000  dollars.  There  are  also  French  churches  at  St. 
Petersburg  and  Moscow,  and  a  Dutch  church  at  St.  Pe- 
tersburg. There  is  a  church  at  Odessa  with  450  mem- 
bers. And  near  Odessa  is  a  large  Reformed  colony  of 
Germans  in  Bessarabia,  numbering  3832.  This  Ger- 
man colony  became  the  originator  of  one  of  the  great 
Evangelistic  movements  in  Russia.  Many  years  ago, 
pastor  Bonekemper  was  accustomed  to  have  prayer- 
meetings  or  Stunden  there.  The  son  of  this  pastor 
came  to  America,  was  educated  in  the  Reformed  Church 
of  the  United  States,  and  went  back  to  visit  his  father's 
home  in  1867.  A  revival  of  religion  broke  out  in  the 
village  while  he  was  there.  Now  it  happened  that  a 
Russian  laborer  became  interested  in  these  meetings,  to 
whom  Mr.  Bonekemper  interpreted  the  services.  With 
his  quick  Russian  ability  to  master  the  languages,  this 
j)easant  rapidly  learned  to  read,  and  becoming  possessed 
with  a  Bible,  he  went  back  to  his  country  home,  a  new 
creature  in  Christ  Jesus.  But  he  could  not  keep  the 
gospel  to  himself.  In  the  long  winter  evenings  he 
would    read    this    Bible  to  his    friends    and    neighbors. 


THE    REFORMED   WORLD.  481 

Ignorant  that  it  was  not  the  custom  in  the  Greek 
Church  to  read  the  Bible,  these  Stundists  went  to  the 
village  priest  to  have  difficult  passages  explained.  They 
found  they  knew  more  about  the  Bible  than  did  the 
priest.  But  the  priest  became  angry  and  began  to  per- 
secute them.  Still,  this  Evangelical  movement  kept  on 
spreading  from  village  to  village.  The  Greek  Church, 
alarmed,  influenced  the  Russian  government  to  try  and 
stop  it.  The  Russian  government  arrested  the  Stund- 
ists, put  them  in  prison,  and  sent  some  away  to  Siberia. 
But  wherever  they  went,  they  spread  the  gospel,  whether 
in  prison  or  in  Siberia.  And  the  seed  sown  by  the 
Reformed  of  Bessarabia  has  so  grown,  that  it  is  said 
there  are  at  present  eighty  thousand  Stundists  in  Rus- 
sia. This  great  movement  is  still  spreading,  and  the 
Russian  government  is  powerless  to  stop  it.  The 
Stundist  movement  is  a  child  of  Reformed  effort.  There 
are  also  three  large  Reformed  congregations  of  54,000 
members  along  the  Volga,  which,  by  a  strange  arrange- 
ment of  the  government,  are  placed  under  the  Lutheran 
consistory  of  that  district.  The  whole  number  of  Re- 
formed in  Russia  is  about  80,000. 

THE  REMAINING  COUNTRIES  OF  EUROPE. 

Lutheranism  possesses  Scandinavia.  But  there  is 
one  Reformed  church  in  Sweden,  numbering  about 
190  members.  Denmark  has  a  few  congregations,  as  at 
Copenhagen  and  at  Fredericia.      These  are  descendants 


482         THE    REFORMED    CHURCH    OF   GERMANY. 

of  French  refugees,  who,  more  than  a  century  ago, 
found  a  home  there.  They  were  permitted  to  settle  by 
the  Danish  king,  because  he  thought  his  people  would 
not  understand  French,  and  would  not  be  proselyted  by 
them  from  Lutheranism. 

Belgium  has  two  Reformed  Churches.  One  is  the 
old  National  Walloon  Reformed  Church,  numbering 
about  ten  thousand,  composed  of  descendants  of  the 
Walloons  of  the  sixteenth  century.  The  other  Church 
is  a  new  organization,  which,  although  not  Reformed 
in  name,  yet  has  adopted  the  Belgic  Confession,  and  is, 
therefore,  Reformed  in  creed.  It  is  called  the  Evan- 
gelical Society  of  Belgium.  It  numbers  about  3923 
communicants  and  perhaps  8,000  adherents,  and  is  a 
very  aggressive,  growing  Church. 

The  Reformed  of  Great  Britain  have  become  Pres- 
byterian in  name,  but  there  are  a  few  foreign  Reformed 
churches  in  London.  There  is  the  Dutch  Reformed 
church  at  Austin  Friars — redolent  with  memories  of 
John  A.  Lasco — which  was  the  first  church  to  introduce 
pure  Presbyterianism.  There  are  also  a  Swiss  Reformed, 
a  German  Reformed  and  a  French  Reformed  church  in 
London.  There  may  be  other  German  or  French  Re- 
formed churches  on  the  British  Isles,  of  which  we  have 
no  knowledge. 

Spain  also  has  a  German  mission  under  pastor 
Fliedner,  which  uses  the  Heidelberg  Catechism,  as  the 


THE    REFORMED    WORLD.  483 

incident  on  page  191  shows.  We  can  not  give  statistics, 
but  we  understand  that  there  are  two  German' churches 
in  Madrid.  The  Central  Society  of  Evangelization  of 
France,  which  is  the  missionary  society  of  the  French 
Reformed  Church,  also  has  a  station  beyond  the  Pyre- 
nees in  Spain. 

Italy  also  has  a  few  scattered  Reformed  churches. 
There  are  three  French  Reformed  churches  and  four 
German  Reformed  churches  in  that  papal  land. 

Thus  we  find  that  in  Europe  there  are  about  eight 
millions  of  Reformed  people  living  in  eleven  countries. 
And  the  Reformed  doctrines  are  preached  in  the  French, 
Dutch,  German,  Italian,  Spanish,  Bohemian,  Hunga- 
rian, Polish  and  Russian  languages. 
AFRICA. 

Passing  from  Europe  to  Africa,  we  find  that  at  the 
two  extremities  of  the  dark  continent  there  are  Reformed 
churches.  Algiers  in  the  North  of  Africa,  being  a 
French  colony,  has  French  Reformed  churches.  The 
number  of  Protestants  in  Algiers  is  about  ten  thousand, 
of  whom  we  suppose  the  greater  part  are  French  Re- 
formed. The  Central  Society  of  Evangelization,  the 
missionary  society  of  the  French  Reformed  Church,  has 
missions  in  Algiers.  And  the  McAll  mission  has 
stations  in  that  laud.  The  Waldeusees  have  sent  a  col- 
ony to  Algiers,  which  was  at  first  cared  for  by  the  Re- 
formed churches  of  Algiers. 


484         THE   REFORMED   CHURCH   OF   GERMANY. 

The  southern  part  of  Africa  has  a  strong  Reformed 
church.  It  was  founded  by  Dutch  colonists  who  went 
there  in  1663.  They  were  afterwards  joined  by  French 
refugees  fleeing  from  the  revocation  of  the  Edict  of 
Nantes.  These  have  fused  together  and  formed  one 
strong  conservative,  but  aggressive  Dutch  Reformed 
Church.  Cape  Colony  has  68,000  members.  Orange 
free  state  18,000,  Natal  1000,  South  African  Republic 
2800.  The  Christian  Reformed  Church  has  6000,  and 
the  Dutch  Reformed  Church  of  the  South  African  Re- 
public 15,000.  Thus  there  are  about  110,000  members 
in  those  African  colonies. 

There  are  also  two  missions  in  Africa.  One  from 
the  Dutch  Reformed  Church  numbering  4000,  and  an- 
other from   the    French  Reformed    Church    in    Basuto 

land  numbering  6000. 

ASIA. 

Asia  is  not  without  its  witness  to  the  Reformed 
faith,  although  here  is  it  mainly  a  Missionary  Church. 
The  Dutch  Reformed  Church  of  America  has  three 
flourishing  missions.  One  is  at  Arcot  in  India,  with 
1610  members.  Another  is  at  Amoy  in  China,  (where 
it  has  fused  with  the  English  Presbyterian  mission,) 
numbering  784.  A  third  mission  is  in  Japan,  number- 
ing 770.  The  German  Reformed  Church  of  the  United 
States  has  a  flourishing  mission  in  Japan,  which  num- 
bers 200  members.    These  two  last  have  united  with  the 


THE   REFORMED    WORLD.  485 

Presbyterians  in  forming  the  United  Church  of  Japan. 
There  are  also  two  Dutch  Reformed  churches  on  the 
island  of  Ceylon,  which  were  founded  by  Dutch  colon- 
ists many  years  ago. 

The  islands  of  the  seas  are  not  without  their  witness 
to  the  Reformed  faith.  Although  the  East  India  Com- 
pany for  a  long  time  opposed  the  missionary  societies, 
yet  it  has  changed  its  tactics,  and  now  aids  them  in  Java 
and  elsewhere.  There  is  a  Dutch  Reformed  church  in 
Java,  numbering  7000,  which  is  fostered  by  the  govern- 
ment. East  Java  has  4000  Reformed.  But  the  most 
remarkable  work  has  been  done  by  the  Rotterdam  Mis- 
sionary Society,  which  has  flourishing  stations  on  these 
isles.  On  the  promontory  of  Minahassa,  on  the  island 
of  Celebes,  a  most  remarkable  work  of  grace  has  taken 
place,  by  which  85,000  of  the  heathen  have  become 
Christians.  There  are  on  these  islands  about  110,000 
members,  and  perhaps  200,000  adherents. 

Thus  the  distant  islands  of  the  sea  are  listening  to 

the  faith  of  our  fathers,  and  bearing  their  witness  to  the 

truth. 

AMERICA. 

Passing  over  the  ocean  to  the  new  world,  we  find  in 
South  America  a  few  representatives  of  the  Reformed 
faith.  On  the  northern  coast  of  South  America,  in 
Dutch  Guiana,  in  the  Surinam  district,  there  are  some 
Reformed  churches  under  the  Dutch  government,  but 
we  have  not  been  able  to  get  their  statistics. 


486         THE    REFORMED    CHURCH    OF   GERMANY. 

There  are  also  churches  in  the  Dutch  colonies  of  the 
West  Indias.  The  island  of  Curacoa  has  2000  Protest- 
ants, most  of  whom,  we  suppose,  belong  to  the  Dutch 
Church.  In  the  Danish  West  Indias,  on  the  island  of 
St.  Thomas  there  is  a  Dutch  Reformed  church  of  130 
members,  which  stands  in  connection  with  the  Dutch 
Reformed  Church  of  America. 

We  are  not  informed  whether  there  are  any  Re- 
formed churches  in  the  southern  part  of  South  America, 
but  we  know  that  there  are  a  good  many  German  col- 
onists there,  some  of  whom  are  Reformed,  and  also  that 
there  are  Swiss  settlers  there,  all  of  whom  are  Re- 
formed. 

In  Brazil  there  are  about  a  hundred  thousand  Ger- 
mans. In  Uruguay,  in  the  Argentine  Republic  and  in 
Chili  there  are  many  Germans  and  Swiss.  The  Evan- 
gelical Church  of  Germany  has  been  cultivating  this 
field  to  some  extent,  but  many  of  these  Reformed  set- 
tlers are  without  spiritual  food  or  nurture.  There  is  an 
open  door  for  some  of  the  Reformed  Churches  to  enter 
here  and  reap  rich  harvests. 

In  North  America  is  the  Dutch  Reformed  Church, 
composed  of  the  descendants  of  the  Dutch  settlers  at 
New  York.  It  numbers  83,037  communicants,  and 
about  250,000  adherents,  and  is  a  strong,  conservative, 
wealthy  and  influential  Church. 

The  German  Reformed  Church  of  the  United  States 
was  organized  by  settlers  who  fled  from  Western  Germany 


THE    REFORMED    WORLD.  487 

on  account  of  persecution  and  oppression,  and  came  to 
this  country  in  the  last  century.  It  is  also  a  strong  and 
growing  Church,  and  numbers  at  present  183,980  mem- 
bers, and  perhaps  about  500,000  adherents.  There  is 
also  a  Christian  Reformed  Church,  composed  of  colon- 
ists from  Holland,  which  numbers  18,923  communi- 
cants, and  perhaps  50,000  adherents.  There  are  one  or 
two  Independent  Reformed  Churches  in  the  United 
States.  There  is  a  French  Reformed  church  at  Char- 
leston, composed  of  descendants  of  the  Huguenots.  Its 
services  are  now  conducted  in  the  English  language  and 
it  is  an  influential  church  in  that  city.  There  is  also  a 
colony  of  Swiss  settlers  in  New  Glarus,  Wisconsin,  who 
were  sent  over  by  the  canton  of  Glarus  in  Switzerland. 
Their  church  still  retains  its  connection  with  the  Glarus 
Reformed  Church  of  Switzerland. 

SUMMARY. 

Gathering  up  all  these  statistics,  we  find  there  are 
in  the  world  about  ten  millions  of  adherents  to  the  Re- 
formed faith.  This  is  the  figure  given  by  Professor 
Ebrard  of  Erlangen,  who  is  an  authority  on  these 
points.  There  are  also  about  ten  millions  of  the  sister  or 
cognate  Church,  the  Presbyterian.  So  that  in  all  the 
world,  twenty  millions  may  be  reckoned  as  belonging 
to  the  Reformed  and  Presbyterian  family  of  Churches. 
These  statistics  place  us  as  one  of  the  great  world- 
divisions  of  the  Protestant  Church.     The  largest  denom- 


488         THE    REFORMED    CHURCH    OF    GERMANY. 

ination  in  the  world  is  the  Lutheran,  which  numbers 
thirty  millions.  Then  come  the  Episcopalian,  and  the 
Reformed  or  Presbyterian,  each  of  which  numbers  twenty 
millions.  We  can  not  give  the  exact  statistics  of  the 
other  denominations,  but  calculating  from  their  mem- 
bership, we  find  there  are  perhaps  fourteen  million 
Methodists,  ten  million  Baptists,  four  million  Congrega- 
tionalists.  All  these  statistics  reveal  that  we  belong  to 
no  mean  family,  but  that  we  are  a  part  of  a  great  army 
scattered  over  many  lands,  speaking  many  languages, 
but  bearing  the  same  name,  having  the  same  faith,  and 
preaching  the  same  gospel  of  Christ. 


INDEX  OF  DATES. 


1526.  Homberg  Synod. 

1529.  Diet  of  Spire.     Protest  of  the  German  princes. 

1529.  Marburg  Conference. 

1 530.  Diet  of  Augsburg.     Tetrapolitana  Confession. 

1531.  Smalcald  League. 

1534.  Smalcald  War.     Phillip  of  Hesse  rescues  Wur- 

temberg. 
1536.  Wittenberg  Concord.     Truce  between  Reformed 

and  Lutherans  for  twenty  years. 

1539.  Frankford  Conference,  Calvin  present. 

1540.  Hagenau  Conference,  Calvin  present. 

1541.  Worms  Conference,  Calvin  present. 

]  543.  Elector  Hermanns  Reformation.  Bucer,  Melanc- 
thon  and  Lasco  at  Bonn. 

1544.  Wesel  received  Reformed  emigrants  from  Hol- 
land. 

1546.  Death  of  Luther. 

1546-47.  Smalcald  War.    Phillip  of  Hesse  imprisoned. 

1548.  Augsburg  Interim  is  placed  on  Germany. 

1551.  Elector  Maurice  of  Saxony  defeats  the  Emperor. 

1552.  Passau  treaty.     The  Interim  is  lifted. 

1555.  Augsburg  Diet.  Peace  of  Augsburg,  which  made 
Protestantism  a  legal  religion  in  Germany, 
and  gave  the  adherents  of  the  Augsburg 
Confession  the  right  of  citizenship  and  pro- 
tection. 

1557.  Worms  Conference.    Melancthon  defends  himself 

against  the  high  Lutherans. 

1558.  Frankford  Conference.     Melancthon  is  again  tri- 

umphant. 

1559.  Olevianus  at  Treves. 

1560.  Melancthon's  death. 

32 


490         THE   REFORMED   CHURCH    OF   GERMANY.  i 

J 

1561.  Naumberg  Conference.     Last  victory  of  Melanc- 
thonianism. 

1563.  Heidelberg  Catechism  is  published. 

1564.  Wesel  becomes  Reformed.  -j 
1564.  Maulbron  Conference.  ! 
1566.  Augsburg  Diet.     Elector  Frederick's  defence  of  j 

the  Heidelberg  Catechism.  j 

1568.  Synod  of  Wesel.  I 

1568.  Erastianism  in  the  Palatinate.  j 

1571.  Synod  at  Emden.  ; 

1571.  Arianism  in  the  Palatinate.  ' 

1574.  Crypto  Calvinism  in  Saxony,  under  Peucer.  j 

1576.  Elector  Frederick  III.  of  the  Palatinate  dies.  : 

1577.  Formula  of  Concord  is  published.  ! 

1577.  Frankford  Conference  of  the  Reformed.  j 

1578.  Nassau  becomes  Reformed.  i 
1581.  Middleburg  Synod  in  Holland.  \ 
1581.  Bremen  becomes  Reformed.  , 
1583.  Ursinus  dies  at  Neustadt. 

1583.  Palatinate  again  becomes  Reformed  under  Prince  | 

Casimir.  i 

1583.  Bentheim  becomes  Reformed.  \ 

1584.  General  Synod  of  the  Wetterau  princes  and  min-  : 

isters  at  Herborn. 

1586.  Crypto-Calvinism  again  appears  in  Saxony  under 

Crell. 

1587.  Olevianus  dies  at  Herborn.  ; 

1588.  Zweibriicken  becomes  Reformed.     Publication  of  ] 

the  Zweibriicken  Catechism.  1 

1595.  Bremen  Confession  is  drawn  up  by  Pezel.  | 

1597.  Anhalt  becomes  Reformed.  \ 
1600.  Lippe  becomes  Reformed. 
1604-7.  Hesse  becomes  Reformed. 
1610.  General  Synod  of  Julich-Cleve-Berg. 

1613.  Brandenberg  becomes  Reformed  through  Elector  j 

Sigismund.  ^ 

1618-19.  Synod  of  Dort.  J 

1619.  Leignitz  becomes  Reformed.  i 


INDEX  OF  NAMES,  PLACES,  &c. 


A 

Abegg,  195. 

Abeiidroth,  191. 

Agricohi,  30,  72,  119. 

Aix-la  Chapelle,  393. 

Alsted,  265,  409,  421. 

Altars,  Reformed  opposition  to,  17,81,  92,  96,  99,  116, 

147,  148,  197,  254,  255,   258,  260,  267, 

269,  303,  348,  351,  375,  447. 
Alting,  171,  172,  408,  420. 
Alva,  Duke  of,  283,  393. 
Amberg,  127,  227,  232,  235,  238,  315,  ;U8 
Amling,  346,  441. 
Amsdo'rf,  114. 

Amsterdam,  396,  397,  405,  423. 
Anabaptists,  82. 

Andrea,  12,  200,  202,  240,  312,  331,  331,  316,  354. 
Angelocrator,  408. 

Anhalt,  110,  243,  320,  337,  345,  ooij,  407,  433. 
Antwerp,  393. 
Aportanus,  27,  80. 
Argentine,  D,  245. 
Arianism,  222. 
Arminius,  396,  401. 
Arndt,  347. 
Atonement,    Universal,    88,  180,   380,    401,    115   noti-, 

419. 
Augsburg  Confession,  36,  45,  75,  111,  1 13. 
Augsburg  Confession,  Altered,  45,  75,  1 13,  1 15  and  note, 

121,  122,  137. 
Augsburg,  Diet  of  1530;   35,  74,  1  K). 


492         THE   REFORMED   CHURCH    OF   GERMANY. 

Augsburg,  Diet  of  1555  ;   76,  104,  162,  164,  213. 
Augsburg,  Diet  of  1566  ;   10,  26,  35,  204,  207. 
Augustus,  Elector  of  Saxony,   205,  207,  208,  212,  242, 
250,  330,  335. 

B 

Baden,  327. 

Badius,  295,  296. 

Balcanquall,  409,  416. 

Baptism,  15,  258,  280,  284   note,  286,  303,    346,  348, 

450.     (See  Fonts.) 
Barneveld,  404,  423. 
Bartels,  87,  173  note. 
Beatus,  Rhenanus,  30. 
Beck,  409. 

Belgic  Confession,  287,  290,  395,  398,  411,  418. 
Belier,  322. 
Belus,  247. 

Bentheim,  278,  292,  305,  306,  347,  433. 
Berg,  290  note,  295,  300,  303,  304. 
Bergen,  241. 
Bergius,  380,  408,  441. 
Berleburg,  236,  239,  255,  269. 
Berlin,  371,  372  note,  375. 
Berne,  41,  54,  226,  239,  265,  409. 
Beuthen,  385. 
Beuther,  324. 
Beyer,  104. 

Beza,  219,  220,  246,  313. 
Birstein,  269. 
Bisterfield,  409,  420. 
Blandrata,  223. 
Bias,  Bertrand  De,  280. 
Blume,  343. 
Bogerman,  411,  421. 
Bommel,  281. 
Bonn,  295,  390. 
Boquin  134,  146,  149,  202,  217,  219,  238. 


INDEX   OF   NAMES,    PLACES,   &C.  493 

Boiirges,  157. 

Braiidenberg,  366,  381,  407. 

Bread,  used  instead  of  wafers,  16,  81,  86,  147,  255,  258, 
260,  277,  287,  296,  348,  372,  373   note. 
Breitinger,  408,  416,  420,  424. 
Bres,  Guido  De,  393. 
Breslau,  150,  151,  239,  284. 
Brethren  of  the  Common  Life,  62,  80,  84. 
Bremen,  91,  271,  409,  432. 
Brenius,  423. 

Brenz,  12,  72,  105,  121,  200,  201,  202. 
Brenz'  Catechism,  133,  140,  171,  193. 
Brunswick,  44,  73,  81,  110,  244,  271,  274,  347. 
Bucer,  29,  39,  43,  46,  66,  72,  76,  112,  204,  260. 
Bullinger,  83,  218,  254. 

C 

Calvin,  13,  22,  41,  42,  45,  93,  101,  104,  105,  115,  116, 
120,  151,  157,  216,  285,  395,  443. 

Calvin's  Catecliism,  88,  92,  191,  287. 

Calvinism,  22,  415,  440. 

Cambridge,  46,  389. 

Candidus,  292,  323. 

Capellus,  244. 

Capito,  29,  34,  36,  39,  64. 

Carlstadt,  81. 

Caselius,  34. 

Casimir,  Prince,  210,  213,  214,  219,  228,  234-8,  244, 
259,  307,  315,  338,  347,  436. 

Cassel,  112,  352,  353  note,  357,  364. 

(■assel,  Catechism,  76. 

Castellanus,  56. 

Catherine  Belgica,  267. 

Cans,  Solomon  De,  390. 

Cellarius,  35,  361. 

Chamier,  407. 

Charles  V.,  Emperor,  102. 

Chasse,  314. 


494         THE   REFORMED   CHURCH   OF    GERMANY. 

Chemnitz,  241,  244,  274. 

Christian,  Dake  of  Anhalt,  347,  350,  392,  436. 

Christian  I.,  Elector  of  Saxony,  314,  337. 

Christopher  of  Donop,  351. 

Christopher,    Duke  of  Wurtemberg,    105,    123,  200-4, 

207,  312. 
Cleve,  288. 
Coblentz,  260. 
Cocceians,  265,  442. 
Coctius,  244. 
Coetus,  86,  88,  91. 
Coleman,  221. 
Collins,  66. 

Cologne,  260,  278,  291-96,  304. 
Confirmation,  196,  258. 
Copenhagen,  95,  97. 
Cox,  101. 

Cracow,  city  of,  82. 
Cracow,  332,  333. 
Craig's  Catchism,  191. 
Cranmer,  92. 
Crato,  17,  153,  226. 
Crell,  338,  340,  342. 
Crocius,  409,  421. 

Crosses,  Reformed  hatred  of,  20,  103,  256,  301-2,   451. 
Cruciger,  257,  329,  332,  337,  356,  408,  420. 
Crypto-Calvinists,  203,  241,  257,  328,  349. 
Cup,  use  of,  78.     (See  Lord's  Supper.) 
Cureus,  152,  331. 
Curtius,  98. 

D 
Dalton,  90. 

Dantzic,  90,  202,  274,  275,  386. 
Dathenus,  107,  202,  284,  286. 
D'Aubigne,  18 

Daun  Faikenstein,  292,  296,  433. 
Davenant,  409,  416. 
Denmark,  94,  243,  274,  389,  429  note. 


INDEX   OP   NAMES,    PLACRS,   AC.  496 

Deodati,  409,  421. 

Dessau,  346. 

Detmold,  351. 

Dillenberg,  258. 

Diller,  133,  136,  145,  208. 

DoDatists,  400. 

Dort,  179,  255,  350,  387,  391-4,  402,  405,  406,  410. 

Dort,  Cauons  of,  417,  424. 

Dreckmeier,  351. 

Dresden,  330,  339,  343  note. 

Duisburg,  288,  304. 

Durer,  73,  342. 

E 

Ebrard,  61  note,  179,  182,  446,  448  note,  449. 

Ecolampadius,  64,  66,  67,  72,  83,  110,  112. 

Edward  VI.,  King  of  England,  89,  94,  101,  230. 

Ehem,  133,  202,  207,  236,  309. 

Eiisheim,  409. 

Elberfeld,  296,  300,  301,  303. 

Eiders,  duty  of,  62,  77,  93,  219,  261,  285-7,  298,  301, 

302,  306,  438. 
Elizabeth,  Queen  of  England,  11,  47,  106,  244,  317,  319. 
Emden,  27,  80,  89  note,  90,  98,  271,  288,  409,  432. 
England,  46,  76,  89,  91,  220,  388. 
Episcopius,  401,  403,  412,  413,  423. 
Erasmus,  83,  109. 
Erastianism,  216,  396,  400. 

Erastus,  133,  134,  142,  146,  149,  202,  218,  222,  400. 
Erbach,  144. 
Erfurt,  214. 

Ernest  of  Brandenberg,  299,  370. 
Eutychianism,  23,  203,  445. 
Evell,  380,  440. 

Exorcism,  16,  44,  77,  133,  228,  257,  282,  339,  347. 
Extor,  326. 

F 
Fabricius,  409. 
Fagius,  46. 


496        THE  REFORMED  CHURCH  OP  GERMANY. 

Farel,  18,  33,  83,  160. 

Fauth,  249. 

Feige,  68,  69,  74. 

Ferber,  58. 

Festivals,  Church,  60,  147,  196-7,  258,  449. 

Fink,  370,  372. 

Fisher,  S.  R.,  190. 

Fisher,  Prof.,  61  Note. 

Flacius,  118,  119,  200. 

Fliedner,  191. 

Flinsbach,  163,  167,  323. 

Fonts,  Reformed  hatred  of,  16,  99,  147,  148,  267,  348. 

Formula  of  Concord,  23,  240,  242,  249,  257,  276,  323. 

334,  346,  354,  424,  425. 
Franeker,  263,  396. 
Frankenthal,  107,  129. 
Frankford  on  the  Main,  43,  73,  99,  105,  106,  107  note, 

122,  245,  263,  268. 
Frankford  on  the  Oder,  366,  384. 
Frederick  III.,  Elector  of  the  Palatinate,  26,  135,   142, 

178,  199,  200,  202,  206,  214,  216,  218, 

255,  267,  284,  307,  335,  432. 
Frederick  IV.,  Elector  of  the  Palatinate,  229,  252,  260, 

268,  307,  315,  388. 
Frederick  V.,  Elector  of  the  Palatinate,  384,  387. 
Fremaut,  87. 
Friesland,  80. 
Funk,  120,  445. 
Fussel,  372,  378. 

G 
Garnier  47   77 

Gebhard,  Truchsess,  249,  293  note,  294,  307. 
Gedicke,  367  and  note. 
Geldenhauer,  77. 
Gerbel,  34. 
Gerhart,  202. 
Geselius,  403. 
Giessen,  67,  364. 


497 


Glaneus,  276. 

Goad,  409. 

Goclenius,  359,  408,  419,  441. 

Goebel,  61  note,  87,  183,  and   notes  to   154,   158,  286, 

301,  303,  305,  452  note. 
Gomarus,  251,  397,  401,  409,  416,  421. 
(^lood.  Rev.  Dr.  J.  11.,  190. 
Gottorp,  386. 

Gowns,  18,92,96, 100,  103,  196  note,  258,  348,351,  451. 
Grimersheim,  409. 
Gring,  191. 
Grotius,  423. 
Gryneus,  310. 
Giialthier,  246. 
Gustrovv,  386. 

H 
Hagenan,  44. 

Hagenbach,  notes  17,  18,  334. 
Hague,  403,  417  note. 
Hainstein,  361. 

Hall,  408  note,  409,  416,  424. 
Halle,  367  and  note. 
Hamburg,  91,  98,  243,  244,  274,  275. 
Hamilton,  63,  82. 
Hanau,  106,  266,  268,  433. 
Haner,  64. 
Harbaugh,  190. 

Hardenberg,  84,  99,  117,  136,  271. 
Hardenl)erg,  Count  ol",  296,  433. 
Hausratli,  132  note,  221  note. 
HkHo,  66,  67,  68,  72. 
Heidanus,  287,  394. 
Heidelberg,  26,  30,  122,  129,  130,  138,  193,  228,  322, 

390. 
Heidelberg  Catechism,  78,  107,  170,  199,  218,  251,  254, 

255,  261,  265,  277,  283,  287,  350,  399, 


414,418,  441. 


33 


498         THE    REFORMED    CHURCH    OF   GERMANY. 

Heidfeld,  282,  289. 

Heilbron,  323. 

Helvetic  Confession,  2nd,  190,  215,  247. 

Henry  IV.,  King  of  France,  319,  321. 

Henry  of  Zutphen,  271.  ! 

Heppe,  179,  267  note,  449.  I 

Herborn,  262,  264,  270,  409. 

Hering,  369,  373  note.  I 

Herzog,  notes  to  114,  144,  210,  212.  \ 

Herman,  Elector  of  Cologne,  87,  250,  260. 

Hesse,  26,  50,  76,  243,  253,  352. 

Hesshuss,  13,  134,  145  note,  200,  212,  274,  282,  453.  I 

Hexamer,  324.  \ 

Horn  berg,  56.  ' 

Hospinian,  243,  248.  ] 

Huber,  341,  373  note.  . 

Humanism,  30  note,  40,  83. 

Hunnius,  12,  354,  356.  | 

Huss,  130,  135.  ; 

Hutten,  Ulric  von,  31,  32. 

Hyperius,  76,  77,  352.  i 

Hyperius  Catechism,  76.  - 

Ibach,  73.  I 

Images,  Reformed  opposition  to,  19,  20,  37,  44,  60,  92,  \ 

254,  258,  260,  267,  269,  301,  357,  363,           j 

375  note,  451.  \ 

Interim,  25,  46,  90,  118,  279.  ,                             \ 

Isaac,  293.  ! 

Isenberg,  261,  266,  268,  433.  ] 

Isselberg,  409.  j 

J 

James  I.,  King  of  England,  388,  402,  406. 

Jena,  330. 

Jesuits,  121,  228,  294,  319,  321.  ■ 

John,  Count  of  Dillenberg,  256,  262,  266,  432.  i 

John  Frederick,  Duke  of  Saxony,  123,  146,  207,  331.       ' 


INDEX    OF   NAMES,    PLACES,    &C.  499 

John,  Bnke  of  Zweibrucken,  327,  388.  j 

Julich,  290.  I 

Julich-Cleve-Berg,  300,  303.  'j 

Junius,  226,  245,  397.  I 

K  I 

Kaiserlautern,  193  note,  238.  ] 

Kalman,  301. 

Keckerman,  386. 

Kelsterbach,  268.  ! 

Kemmener,  306. 

Kirchner,  237,  361. 

Kirkl,  324. 

Klebitz,  137,  139,  141,  143,  145.  j 

Knibbius,  247.  | 

Knox,  100. 

Kooli,  409,  424. 

Kouigsberg,  83  note,  85,  90,  381.  | 

Konigstein,  340. 

Kraft,  Adam,  58.  ' 

Kratft,  Prof.,  185.  I 

Krummacher,  303  note. 

Kupper,  167. 

L 

Laidh'e,  190. 

Labadie,  286.  \ 

Lambert,  52,  70,  73,  285,  288.  i 

Landstuhl,  31.  j 

Languet,  245,  247.  ; 

Lasco,  27,  82,  87,  128,  133,  260,  271,  272,  279,  284,453.  j 

Lasco's  Catechism,  88,  94,  99,  107,  273.  ] 

Lefevre,  34.  I 

Leipsic,  119,  332,  333,  338,  341,  343.  j 

Lemgo,  3ol. 

Lemsius,  88,  90.  • 

Lewis,  Count  of  Nassau,  263,  411,  416. 

Lewis,  Elector  of  the   Palatinate,   227,    229,   232,  236, 

248,  251,  307.  ] 


500         THE   REFORMED   CHURCH    OF   GERMANY. 

Lewis,  Count  of  Wittgenstein,  227,  236,  253,  262,  266, 

432. 
Leyden,  397,  405. 
Liegnitz,  383,  434. 
Lightfoot,  221. 
Limburg,  50. 
Lippe,  351. 
Liturgy,   17,    100,   194,   197    and    note,    286,    301-2, 

451. 
Llandaif,  Bishop  of,  408,  414,  416,  418,  421,  422. 
Loffiirds,  73. 
London,  89,  91,  389. 
Lord's  snpper,  86,  92,  284  note,   287,  304,  348,  443, 

450.     (See  Bread.) 
Lossius,  341. 
Louvain,  85,  136. 
Lubeck,  98,  243,  274,  275. 
Lubertus,  409. 
Luther,  17,  18,  31,  39,  42,  55,  61,  65,  67,  72,  109, 129, 

212. 
Lutherans,  (Preface,)  14,  118,  425,  427-30. 
Luther's  Catechism,  76,  171,  173,  174,  190,  354. 
Lydius,  396,  410,  418. 

M 

Marbach,  47,  134,  237,  310,  323. 

Marburg,  59,  62,  67,  6S  and  note,  73  note,  354,  359. 

Marburg  Conference,  35,  64,  352. 

Mark,  299. 

Martinius,  409,  416,  419,  421,  423,  441. 

Martyr,  Peter,  47,  89,  95,  151,  153-4,  160. 

Maulbron,  201. 

Maurice  of  Hesse,  27,  79,  320,  356,  358,  436. 

Maurice  of  Orange,  403-4,  423. 

Maximilian,  Emperor,  193,   206,   210,   215,   223,  229, 

334. 
Mavence,  52,  57,  65,  66,  115,  206,  364. 
Mayer,  409,  424. 


INDEX    OF    NAMES,    PLACES,    AC.  601 

Meckleuhcr^r,  98,  123,  386. 

Melancthoii,  21,  27,  36,  39,  43,  .51,  65,  67,  72,  75,  99, 

106,  108,  116,  118,  122,  145-6,  152,  260, 

272,  281,  443. 
Melancthouianisin,  27,  118,  122-3,  128,  132,  151,  180, 

199,240,338,  346,352,429. 
Melander,  73,  74. 
Mening,  276. 
Metz,  55,  136,  160. 
Meiirs,  295,  300,  433. 
Micronius,  95,  99,  173. 
Middleburg,  259,  394. 
Holier,  329,  332. 
Monheim,  287  Note. 
Morenherg,  17,  152. 
Morlin,  118,  144,  146,  274. 
Moiiliu,  407. 
Miihlheim,  296,  297. 
Muller,  375. 
Munipelgard,  313. 
Musaus,  275. 

N 

Nassau,  13,  243,  254,  256. 

Naumberg,  123,  137,  211. 

Neander,  96. 

Neomenius,  384. 

Neuberg,  132,  200,  327. 

Neuser,  217-9,  222-4. 

Neustadt,  238-9,  244,  250,  251. 

Neviges,  296. 

Nevin,  177  note,  450  note,  454  note. 

Nielle,  289. 

Noviomagus,  95,  257. 

Nuenar,  287,  291-3,  296. 

Nuremberg,  65,  73,  110. 


502         THE    KEFORMED    CHURCH    OF   GERMANY. 

0 

Olevianus,  149,  156,  176,  202,  214,  218,  219,  227,234, 
236,  239,  255,  263,  264,  269,  302,  394, 
400,  442. 

Olympia,  Morata,  131. 

Orzenius,  282. 

Osiander,  72,  225. 

Osiandrianism,  120  and  note,  181,  203,  445. 

Otto  Henry,  104,  122,  130,  132,  138,  188,  230. 

Oxford,  389. 

P 

Palatinate,  108,  126,  166,  253-4,  307. 
Palatinate  liturgy,  194,  259,  448,  451. 
Pappus,  49. 

Pareus,  194,  251,  266,  312,  319. 
Patiens,  237,  310. 
Pelargus,  380,  408. 

Pericopes,  17,  18,  197,  256,  259,  364-5,  448. 
Personne,  245. 

Peucer,  124,  208,  329,  332,  346. 
Pezel,  257,  258,  262,  276,  329,  332. 
Pfaff,  361. 

Phillip,  Landgrave  of  Hesse,  26,  35,  50,  64,  69,  71,  75 
note,  76,  104,  123,   200,   204,  207,  352. 
Pigasetta,  221. 
Pietism,  304. 
Piscator,  265,  419. 
Pistorius,  355. 
Plateanus,  282. 
Pleissenberg,  332,  341. 
Plitt,  184. 

Poland,  82,  84,  105,  245,  367. 
Polyander,  409. 
Pours,  410. 
Pratorius,  245. 
Prayer  meetings,  93,  286. 


INDEX   OF    NAMES,    PLACES,    &C.  603 

Predestination,  21,  48,  87,  113  and  note,  154,   415  and 

note,  440. 
Preparatory  services,  60,  194,  196,  287. 
Presbyterian  ism,  20,  60,  75,  77,  Si\,  93,  219,  285,  301, 

408  note,  435,  437. 
Probst,  272. 
Pruckraan,  371,  378. 
Psalms,  singing  of,  92,  196,  255,  286,  364,  453. 

R 

Ranke,  61. 

Ratisbon,  45. 

Reformed  name,  12. 

Remonstrants,  401-2,  406,  422,  423. 

Reuchlin,  109,  129. 

Richard,  Count  of  Simmern,  206,  243,  316. 

Riedesel,  355. 

Rischl,  61  note. 

Rivet,  407. 

Roger,  244. 

RoUius,  282. 

Rosens,  403. 

Rotterdam,  405,  423. 

Roussel,  34. 

Rutimeyer,  409. 

s 

Salmuth,  338. 

Saluar,  13,  246. 

Sapienz  College,  131,  148,  155,  198,  226,  238. 

8ayn,  269. 

Schaif,  19  note,  109  note,  183,  184,   190,  382. 

Schnepf,  35,  202. 

Schonaicher,  385. 

Schoner,  358. 

Schonfeld,  358,  365. 

Schopper,  237. 

Schurman,  184. 

Schutz,  332. 


504         THE    REFORMED    CHURCH    OF    GERMANY. 

ir 

Scripture  Lessons,  17,  18,  197,  256,  259,  364-5,  448. 

Scultetus,  267,  373,  385,  392,  408,  420,  422,  424. 

Sedan,  370,  388.  . 

Selden,  221. 

Selnecker,  334,  338. 

Shecksius,  234,  237,  310.  i 

Sickingen,  31.  ( 

Sidney,  Sir  Piiillip,  244.  ! 

Siegen,  256,  262,  264. 

Sigismuud,  Elector  of  JBrandenburg,  300,  367,  407,  434.     i 

Simmeru,  127,  135,  230.  i 

Smalcald  League,  75,  111,  261  note. 

Solingeu,  300.  j 

Solms-Braunsels,  254,  259,  292,  433.  ^                   j 

Speratus,  131.  : 

Spire,  10,  52,  64,  110,  130,  215,  223.  ! 

Sperber,  59.  j 

Sponheim,  127,  167.  I 

Stahl,  185.  j 

Stein,  408,  416,  421.  1 

Steinfurt,  306,  402.  ^ 

Stephens,  190.  ; 

Stossel,  144,  146,  332-3. 

Strasburg,  26,  28,  56,  66,  200,  260,  293,  366,  432. 

St.  Goar,  67.  ] 

Stuler,  375,  379. 

Sturm,  Jacob,  29,  37,  38,  47,  52. 

Sturm,  John,  40,  48,  256,  260,  305,  351.  ' 

Sudhoff,  148,  154  note,  158   note,    161    note,  173  note,      I 

177,  179,  182,  427  note,  449. 

Sutor,  222,  224.  ; 

Sweden,  98,  327.  i 

Sylvanus,  222,  224.  ; 

Sylvius,  141.  I 

Synergism,  44,  113.  \ 

T  1 

Tecklenberg,  305.  j 

Temperance,  259,  356.  ' 


INDEX   OF   NAMP:.S,   PLACES,   &c.  605 

Tetrapolitaiui  Confession,  3G,  47,  4  16. 

Theantliropic  Lite  Theories,  203,  445. 

Thodenus,  351. 

Thuetius,  245. 

Tigurine  Confession,  272,  284. 

Timau,  91,  272,  273. 

Torgau  Book,  241. 

Tossanus,    149,   221,  227,  229,   233-4,  236,  239,  309, 

408. 
Transylvania,  223. 
Tremellius,  190,  226,  238. 
Trent,  Council  of,  45,  188,  319,  424. 
Treysa,  355. 

Treves,  156,  160,  168,  235,  270. 
Treviranus,  186,  190. 
Trouchin,  409. 
Turner,  89. 
Tyndai,  63. 

U 

Ubiquity,  22,  112,  202,  241  note,  444. 

Udenheim,  30. 

Ullman,  195. 

Ulric,  Duke  of  Wurteniherg,  38,  69. 

Upper  Palatinate,  227,  318 

Ursinus,  17,  106,   107,  150,    176,   193,   200,   202,  204, 

226,  238,  239,  246,   250,  383,  385,  442, 

445. 
Utenbogardus,  397,  401. 
Utenhoven,  95. 
Utrecht,  187,  405. 

V 
Van  Buren,  274. 
Van  Marnix,  412  note. 
Vehe,  222,  224. 

Victoria,  (^ueeu  of  England,  392. 
Vogelin,  331. 
Voltaire,  369. 

34 


506         THE   REFORMED    CHURCH    OF   GERMANY.  ! 

■! 
I 

Von  Dohna,  367.  ' 

Von  Grove,  282.  j 

Vorstius,  402.  i 

W  • 

Walaus,  423.  i 

Walloons,  280,  395.  j 

Ward,  409,  416.  \ 
Weekly  Meetings,  93,  196,  286. 

Weissenberg,  32.  i 

Wendelin,  350,  440.  i 

Wenzel  of  Zedlitz.  383.  i 

Wesel,  278,  283,  288,  289,  299,  370.                                        ] 

Westminster  Assembly,  221.  i 

Westminster  Catechism,  175.  ) 

Westphal,  13,  98,  103,  104,  273.  i 

Wetterau,  253,  441.  i 

Whitlock,  221.  •' 

Whitmer,  190.  ] 
Whittingham,  100,  103. 

Widebrara,  257,  276,  329,  332.  ; 

Wied,  87,  260,  433.  ' 
Wigand,  118. 

William,  Landgrave  of  Hesse,  335,  353,  354,  356. 
William,  Prince  of  Orange,  256,  263,  396  note,  404. 
William,  Emperor  of  Germany,  382. 

Williard,  194  note,  217  note.  : 
Withers,  217. 

Wittenberg  Concord,  39,  75,  81,  112,  205,  352.                      j 

Wittgenstein,  253,  432.  j 

Wolfgang,  Duke  of  Zweibriicken,  200.  1 

Wolters,  148  note,  187,  189.  I 

Worlitz,  349.  ■ 
Worms,  44,  115,129. 

Xilander,  202,  219. 

Year,  Church,  196,  449. 


X 
Y 


INDEX    OF   NAMES,    PLACES,   &C.  507 

z 

Zahn,  348  note. 

Zanchius,  47,  48,  78,  218,  219,  226,  238,  239,  244-7. 

Zeitz,  339. 

Zell,  28,  32,  41,  6(). 

Zerbst,  337,  345,  340,  350. 

Ziileger,  149,  245. 

Zurich,  151,  153,  160,  218,  420. 

Zweibriicken,  168,  323,  388,  441. 

Zweibriicken  Catechism,  326,  441. 

Zwingb',  17,  18,  37,  54,  64,  Q6,  72,  83,  110,  216,  395. 


ERRATA. 

Page  72,  Benz  should  read  Brenz. 
Page  136,  Yeniiiogen  should  read  Fenningen. 
Page  197,  Order  of  Worship  should   read   Directory  of 
Worshi]). 


